339 / 521
with an indefinite-term employment contract from the same workplace
be considered to be an equivalent employee. If there is no like employ-
ee, the Law states that an employee with an indefinite-term employ-
ment contract from the same or similar branch will be considered to be
an equivalent employee.
Form of Fixed-Term Employment Contract
Article 8/2 of the Labor Law states that “
If the employment con-
tract’s validity is one year or more, it must be in written form
.” After
this general regulation for all of the employment contracts, Article 11
of the same Law includes the provision, “
The contract between an
employee and employer in written form is called a fixed-term contract
that is subject to objective conditions, such as fixed-term work or com-
pletion of specific work, or occurrence of a certain event
.” While
Article 11 stipulates that fixed-term contracts must be in written form,
Article 8 stipulates that employment contracts must be in written form,
if the term of validity is one year or more. These differences between
the two Articles lead to different opinions in doctrine. According to one
opinion, in doctrine, it is imperative that fixed-term employment con-
tracts be written form, even if their validity periods are less than one
year; another opinion is that fixed-term employment contracts are not
required to be in writing if their validity is less than one year. In our
opinion, regardless of the duration, as is provided in the Law, all fixed-
term employment contracts are to be in written form.
Determination of Period in Fixed-Term Employment Contract
The presence of fixed-term employment contract arises when the
parties determine a period for the contract. This is possible if objective
conditions exist. Without objective conditions, fixed-term employment
contracts cannot specifying only a period of time. The format of the
contract period may be set forth as follows.
Determination of the Definite Duration
During the course of a project, if any technical personnel are to be
employed, and if the termination of the project can be predicted, dura-
tion of the project can be determined between the parties, or the dura-
LABOR LAW
323