Unofficial English translation for information only. In case of discrepancy, the Turkish text prevails. This translation is not legal advice.
Turkish source: Law No. 4857, Official Gazette 10/06/2003, No. 25134. Turkish text as published on mevzuat.gov.tr, checked on 26 October 2026: https://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/mevzuat?MevzuatNo=4857&MevzuatTur=1&MevzuatTertip=5
CHAPTER THREE – Wages
Madde 53 – Right to annual paid leave and leave periods
Employees who have worked for at least one year from the date they started work at the workplace, including the probationary period, shall be granted annual paid leave.
The right to annual paid leave may not be waived.
The provisions of this Law concerning annual paid leave shall not apply to those employed in seasonal or campaign work which, by its nature, lasts less than one year.
The annual paid leave period to be granted to employees may not be less than the following, according to length of service:
a) Fourteen days for those with one to five years of service, inclusive of five years,
b) Twenty days for those with more than five and less than fifteen years of service,
c) Twenty-six days for those with fifteen years of service or more,
(Added sentence: 10/9/2014-6552/5 art.) The annual paid leave periods of employees working underground shall be increased by four days.
However, the annual paid leave period granted to employees aged eighteen or under and employees aged fifty or over may not be less than twenty days.
Annual leave periods may be increased by employment contracts and collective agreements.
Madde 54 – Acquiring entitlement to and period for taking annual paid leave
For the purpose of calculating the period required to qualify for annual paid leave, periods during which employees have worked for the same employer at one or more workplaces shall be combined. However, periods during which employees working at a workplace covered by this Law have worked at the same employer’s workplaces without being covered by this Law shall also be taken into account.
If an employee’s attendance is interrupted during a one-year period for reasons other than those listed in Article 55, a period of service equal to the interruption shall be added, and the end date of the one-year period of service required for the employee to qualify for leave shall thereby be carried forward to the next service year.
The one-year period of service required for an employee’s future leave entitlements shall be calculated from the day on which the previous entitlement to leave arose, forward to the next service year, in accordance with the preceding paragraph and Article 55.
For each service year calculated in accordance with the preceding paragraphs and Article 55, the employee shall take annual leave during the following service year.
Periods of service at workplaces belonging to the same ministry and at workplaces of legal entities affiliated with the same ministry, as well as periods of service at public economic enterprises or banks and organisations established pursuant to a special law or a Presidential Decree, or at workplaces affiliated with them, shall be taken into account in calculating the employee’s entitlement to annual paid leave.[17]
Madde 55 – Periods deemed to count as work for annual leave purposes
The following periods shall be deemed to count as work in calculating entitlement to annual paid leave:
a) Days on which the employee is unable to attend work because of an accident suffered or illness contracted (However, no more than the period specified in subparagraph (b) of subparagraph (I) of Article 25 shall be counted.).
b) Days on which female employees are not permitted to work before and after childbirth pursuant to Article 74.
c) Days on which the employee is unable to attend work while performing military exercises or duties imposed under any law, other than compulsory military service (No more than 90 days of this period shall be counted in a year.).
d) Fifteen days of the time during which the employee does not work as a result of work being suspended for more than one consecutive week at the workplace due to compelling reasons (provided that the employee resumes work).
e) Periods referred to in Article 66.
f) Weekly rest days, national holidays and general holidays.
g) Half-day leave which, under a regulation issued pursuant to Law No. 3153, must be granted in addition to Sundays to employees working in X-ray clinics.[18]
h) Days on which employees are unable to attend work because they participate in mediation meetings, serve on arbitration boards, perform employee representative duties on those boards, or attend councils, boards, commissions and meetings established under legislation relating to working life, or conferences, congresses or boards of international organisations relating to labour matters, as employees’ or trade union representatives.
ı) (Amended: 4/4/2015-6645/35 art.) Leave periods listed in Additional Article 2,
j) Other leave granted by the employer and periods of short-time working under Article 65.
k) The period of annual paid leave granted to the employee as a result of the application of this Law.
Madde 56 – Taking annual paid leave
Annual paid leave may not be divided by the employer.
The employer is obliged to grant this leave as an uninterrupted period of the duration specified in Article 53.
(Amended third paragraph: 14/4/2016-6704/16 art.) However, the leave periods provided for in Article 53 may, by agreement between the parties, be taken in parts, provided that one part is not less than ten days.
Other paid or unpaid leave, or rest and sick leave, granted by the employer during the year may not be set off against annual leave.
National holidays, weekly rest days and general holidays falling within the annual paid leave period shall not be counted as part of the leave period.
For employees who will spend their annual paid leave somewhere other than the place where the workplace is located, the employer is obliged, upon request and provided that this is documented, to grant up to a total of four days’ unpaid leave to cover the time spent travelling to and from that place. The employer is obliged to keep a leave record document showing the annual paid leave of employees working at the workplace.
(Added paragraph: 10/9/2014-6552/6 art.) The annual paid leave period of employees of a subcontractor who continue to work at the same workplace despite a change of subcontractor shall be calculated taking into account the periods they have worked at that workplace. The principal employer is obliged to check whether employees employed by the subcontractor have taken the annual paid leave to which they are entitled and to ensure that it is taken during the relevant year, while the subcontractor is obliged to provide the principal employer with a copy of the leave record document which it is required to keep under the sixth paragraph.
Madde 57 – Annual leave pay
The employer is obliged to pay in advance, or provide as an advance, the wages for the annual leave period to each employee taking annual paid leave, before that employee begins their leave.
The provision of Article 50 shall apply in calculating these wages.
For an employee whose wages are not based on a set daily, weekly or monthly amount but vary in payment interval and amount, such as piecework wages, commission, a share of profits or wages under the percentage system, the wages payable for the leave period shall be calculated on the basis of the average obtained by dividing the wages earned during the preceding one-year period by the number of days actually worked.
However, if the employee’s wages were increased during the preceding year, leave pay shall be calculated by dividing the wages received between the beginning of the month in which the employee takes leave and the date of the increase by the days worked during the same period.
In places where the percentage system is applied, these wages shall be paid by the employer in addition to the sums collected as percentages.
Wages for weekly rest days, national holidays and general holidays falling within the annual paid leave period shall be paid separately.
Madde 58 – Prohibition on working during leave
If it is established that an employee taking annual paid leave has worked in return for wages during the leave period, the employer may recover the wages paid to the employee for that leave period.
Madde 59 – Leave pay upon termination of the contract
If an employment contract terminates for any reason, the wages for annual leave periods to which the employee is entitled but has not used shall be paid to the employee or their beneficiaries at the wage applicable on the date the contract terminates. The limitation period for this claim shall begin on the date the employment contract terminates.
Where the employer terminates the employment contract, the notice period specified in Article 17 and the new job search leave which the employee must be granted pursuant to Article 27 may not overlap with annual paid leave periods.
Madde 60 – Regulations concerning leave
The periods during the year in which annual paid leave may be taken according to the nature of the work performed, the manner in which and persons by whom leave is granted or placed in sequence, the measures the employer must take to ensure that annual leave is beneficial, the procedures for taking leave, and the form of records the employer is required to keep shall be set out in a regulation to be prepared by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
Madde 61 – Insurance contributions
For wages paid to insured persons for periods of annual paid leave, payment by employees and employers of insurance contributions other than contributions for occupational accidents and diseases shall continue in accordance with the principles of the Social Insurance Law No. 506.
Madde 62 – Cases in which wages may not be reduced
Wages may not be reduced in any manner whatsoever on the grounds that working periods applied in any kind of work are legally reduced to lower limits, that a statutory obligation incumbent on the employer is fulfilled, or that any provision of this Law is applied.
Notes
[17] By Article 145 of Decree-Law No. 700 dated 2/7/2018, the phrase “authority granted by special law” in this paragraph was amended to read “by Presidential decree”.
[18] By Article 145 of Decree-Law No. 700 dated 2/7/2018, the word “statute” in this subparagraph was amended to read “regulation”.