351 / 521
Practices of the Court of Cassation with regard to Invalid
Termination of the Labor Contract
*
Att. Ezgi Babur
Article 21 of Labor Law numbered 4857 (“Labor Law”) regulates
terminations without valid reasons of labor contracts by employers and
the consequences of such terminations. Practices concerning this arti-
cle are shaped by the precedents of the Court of Cassation. These
precedents, which are of great importance in legal practice, shall be
analyzed in this article.
In General
Pursuant to Art.18/1 of the Labor Law, the employer, who termi-
nates the contract of an employee engaged for an indefinite period,
who is employed in an establishment with thirty or more workers, and
who meets a minimum working period of six months, must use a valid
reason for such termination that is connected with the capacity or con-
duct of the employee, or be based on the operational requirements of
the establishment or service. A recent amendment of the Labor Law
has regulated that the minimum working period, as stated in the rele-
vant article, would not be sought for those employees working in
underground works
1
.
Pursuant to the first paragraph of Article 21 of the Labor Law, if
the court or the arbitrator concludes that the termination of the labor
contract is unjustified because no valid reason has been given, or the
alleged reason is invalid, the employer must re-employ the worker
within one month. If, upon the application of the employee, the
LABOR LAW
335
*
Article of December 2014
1
This amendment is made by Art.2 of Law no. 6552 published in the Official Gazette dated
11.09.2014 and numbered 29116 (Reiterated).