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 NINE – Miscellaneous, Provisional and Final Provisions
Madde 109 – Written or electronic notification
(Amended together with its title:20/7/2025-7555/23 art.)
Notifications provided for in this Law must be made to the person concerned in writing against signature or, subject to the employee’s written consent, by sending them through a registered electronic mail (KEP) account, a qualified form of electronic mail that provides legal evidence in relation to its use, including the sending and delivery of electronic communications. Notifications resulting in the termination of an employment contract must in all cases be made in writing. If the person to whom written notification is made does not sign it, this is recorded in a report at that place. However, service falling within the scope of the Notification Law No. 7201 dated 11/2/1959 shall be effected in accordance with the provisions of that Law.
The costs relating to the use of the KEP system shall be borne by the employer. The electronic notifications specified in this article shall be made in accordance with the legislative provisions relating to the KEP system.
Madde 110 – Special working conditions for residential building attendants
The scope and nature of the services of residential building attendants, their working hours, weekly rest day, national and general holidays, annual paid leave entitlements, and matters relating to attendants’ residences, including the different forms and principles to be applied in regulating these matters, shall be regulated by a regulation to be prepared by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
Madde 111 – Industrial, commercial, agricultural and forestry work
(Amended: 15/5/2008-5763/11 art.)
For the purposes of the application of this Law, the principles for determining which work is to be considered industrial, commercial, agricultural or forestry work are set out below.
The principles for work to be considered industrial are as follows:
a) Prospecting for and extracting all kinds of minerals from the ground, and stone, sand and lime quarries.
b) Processing, cleaning, altering the shape of, decorating and preparing for sale raw, semi-finished and finished materials.
c) All kinds of installation, repair, dismantling, disassembly and demolition.
d) Construction, repair, alteration, dismantling and demolition of buildings, and all kinds of industrial construction ancillary thereto.
e) Construction and repair of roads, railways, tramways, ports, canals, dams, airports, breakwaters, tunnels, bridges, sewers and wells; salvage of wrecks and drainage of marshes.
f) Generation, conversion, transmission, installation and distribution of electricity and all kinds of motive power.
g) Installation and operation of water and gas systems.
h) Installation of telephone, telegraph, wireless, radio and television systems.
i) Construction, repair, alteration, dismantling and disassembly of ships and steamships.
j) Loading and unloading goods at stations, bonded warehouses, quays, ports and airports.
k) Printing works.
The principles for work to be considered commercial are as follows:
a) Purchase and sale of all kinds of raw, semi-finished and finished vegetable, animal or industrial products and goods.
b) Work relating to the banking and finance sector, as well as insurance, commission agency, storage, warehousing and bonded warehousing.
c) Purchase and sale of aquatic products.
d) Transport of persons, goods and animals by land, on lakes and on rivers.
The principles for work to be considered agricultural and forestry work are as follows:
a) Cultivation, production, improvement and research concerning all kinds of fruit-bearing and non-fruit-bearing plants; tea, cotton, tobacco and fibre plants; citrus fruits; rice and legumes; trees, shrubs, vines, seeds, seedlings and saplings; vegetables and field crops; and fodder and dairy plants; all kinds of soil work related thereto; sowing, planting, grafting, pruning, irrigation, fertilising, harvesting, threshing, gathering, cleaning, preparation and sorting; combating diseases and pests; soil improvement; and conservation of meadows, pastures, soil and water.
b) Protection, planning (forest management), cultivation, operation and demarcation of forests; infrastructure work relating thereto; collection of seeds, nurseries, afforestation, erosion control, surveys, projects and rehabilitation; forestry research; and the establishment, maintenance and development of national parks, forest recreation areas and urban forests.
c) Rearing, production and improvement of all kinds of working and income-producing animals (including bees, silkworms and similar animals), and the related care, herding, training, shearing and milking, and obtaining, collecting and storing their products, as well as combating diseases and parasites of these animals.
d) Without prejudice to the provisions of the Maritime Labour Law No. 854, hunting, fishing and production on land and in water, and the storage and transport of products obtained thereby.
In accordance with the principles set out above, which category—industrial, commercial, agricultural or forestry work—a particular type of work falls within for the purposes of this Law shall be regulated by a regulation to be issued within six months by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, after obtaining the opinions of the Ministries of Industry and Trade, Environment and Forestry, and Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Madde 112 – Severance pay for employees of certain public institutions and organisations
Payments made, under legislation or contracts, by way of severance pay to personnel of institutions and organisations established by law or under authority granted by law to whom the provisions of this Act and Laws No. 854, 5953 and 5434 do not apply, and to persons employed under contracts in public institutions, shall be deemed to be severance pay.
(Added paragraph: 10/9/2014-6552/8 art.) The severance pay of employees employed by subcontractors within the scope of subparagraph (e) of the first paragraph of Article 62 of the Public Procurement Law No. 4734 dated 4/1/2002;
a) For those who have worked continuously at workplaces belonging to the same public institution or organisation, irrespective of whether their subcontractors have changed, the periods of service forming the basis for severance pay in respect of the periods worked in this way shall be determined by reference to the total periods of work at workplaces belonging to the same public institution or organisation. For those whose employment contracts with their last subcontractor have ended in a manner requiring severance pay under Article 14 of Labour Law No. 1475, their severance pay shall be paid by the relevant public institution or organisation,
b) For employees employed by the same subcontractor under the same employment contract at different public institutions or organisations, whose employment contracts have ended in a manner requiring severance pay under Article 14 of Labour Law No. 1475, their severance pay shall be paid by the last public institution or organisation for which they worked, on the basis of the total periods of service at workplaces belonging to different public institutions or organisations within the scope of subparagraph (e) of the first paragraph of Article 62 of Law No. 4734,
by deposit into the employee’s bank account.
(Added paragraph: 10/9/2014-6552/8 art.) Where the employment contract made with the subcontractor has not ended, but the employee continues to be employed by the subcontractor at a workplace other than one belonging to administrations within the scope of Law No. 4734, and the employment contract ends in a manner requiring severance pay while the employee is so employed, the severance pay attributable to the period at workplaces belonging to the public institutions or organisations concerned shall, at the employee’s written request, be calculated on the basis of the employee’s wage at the last workplace where they worked for a public institution or organisation, updated by reference to the minimum wage increase rates for the relevant years, and paid by the last public institution or organisation into the employee’s bank account. If the severance pay calculated and paid in this way is less than the severance pay that would be calculated on the basis of the wage on the date the employment contract ended, taking the same periods into account, the employee’s right to claim the difference from the subcontractor is reserved.
(Added paragraph: 10/9/2014-6552/8 art.) Where severance pay is paid on the basis of the total periods of service at workplaces belonging to different public institutions or organisations pursuant to subparagraph (b) of the second paragraph or the third paragraph, the last public institution or organisation making the severance payment shall recover from the relevant public institution or organisation the portion of the severance pay paid that relates to the period of service at the other public institutions or organisations. However, no recovery shall be made between public administrations within the scope of central government under this paragraph.
(Added paragraph: 10/9/2014-6552/8 art.) The severance pay shall be paid, regardless of whether the appropriation is sufficient, from the budget appropriation designated for severance pay at workplaces specified in subparagraph (a) of the first paragraph of Additional Article 8 of Law No. 4734, and, at workplaces specified in subparagraph (b), from the service procurement expenditure item.
(Added paragraph:21/2/2019-7166/11 art.) (Sixth paragraph annulled by the Constitutional Court’s Decision dated 19/9/2019 and numbered E.:2019/42, K.:2019/73.)
(Added paragraph: 10/9/2014-6552/8 art.) The calculation of the periods of service at these workplaces of employees working for subcontractors within the scope of this Article, the documents to be requested from the subcontractor and its employees, and other procedures and principles relating to the payment process shall be determined by a regulation issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, after obtaining the opinions of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Procurement Authority.
(Added paragraph: 4/4/2015-6645/40 art.) Revenues obtained by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund from the sale, following seizure or through enforcement proceedings, of assets belonging to companies engaged in underground mining under royalty agreements within the scope of the Public Procurement Contracts Law No. 4735 dated 5/1/2002 and the Mining Law No. 3213 dated 4/6/1985, and to their partners, shall be used as a matter of priority to pay the severance pay and compensation in lieu of notice, leave pay, overtime pay and other wage claims of employees who worked for those companies under those agreements and whose employment contracts ended in a manner entitling them to severance pay. The Savings Deposit Insurance Fund shall make these payments by depositing them into the accounts of the persons concerned. The information and documents required for payment shall be delivered to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund by the employer for whom the employee last worked.
Madde 113 – Protection of wages of persons employed in certain types of work
The provisions of Articles 32, 35, 37 and 38 shall apply to employees working at workplaces listed in subparagraphs (b) and (ı) of paragraph one of Article 4 of this Law. In cases of contravention of these articles, the relevant penal provisions shall apply to the persons concerned.
Madde 114 – Tripartite Consultative Board
A consultative board based on tripartite representation and advisory in nature shall be established to ensure effective consultation between the Government and the confederations of employers’, public officials’ and employees’ trade unions, for the purpose of developing industrial peace and industrial relations and monitoring legislative work and practices relating to working life.
The procedures and principles governing the Board’s work shall be regulated by a regulation to be issued.
Madde 115 – Establishment of a canteen
Where one hundred and fifty or more employees are employed at workplaces, employers may allocate premises to consumer cooperatives to be established by employees for the purpose of meeting the necessary needs of employees and their families.
Madde 116
(Relates to the Law No. 5953 dated 13.6.1952 on the Regulation of Relations between Persons Working in and Employers in the Press Profession, and has been incorporated in its place.)
Madde 117
(Relates to the Trade Unions Law No. 2821 dated 5.5.1983, and has been incorporated in its place.)
Madde 118
(Relates to the Trade Unions Law No. 2821 dated 5.5.1983, and has been incorporated in its place.)
Madde 119 – Regulations
The regulations provided for in this Law shall be issued within six months from the date of publication of the Law.
Madde 120 – Provisions repealed
All articles of the Labour Law No. 1475 dated 25.8.1971, except Article 14, have been repealed.