Turkish Labor Law
The shortening of compulsory military service and paid military service have always been on the agenda throughout the years, and intense discussions on the subject have continued to be held frequently in the media outlets. With the latest regulations, this discussion has been put to an end for now and compulsory military service has been determined as 6 months, regardless of education level, and paid military service as 30 days. For the period of July / December 2020, citizens will have the right to do paid military service for 37.070 TL, and 5.563 Euros if paid in foreign currency.
After this new regulation, the first question that came to mind was whether people who applied for paid military service were entitled to severance pay from the institution they worked for. The statement in Article 2 of the Law No. 7146 that the periods spent in basic military training will be counted as unpaid leave brought the interpretation that employees who leave their jobs with paid military service cannot receive severance pay.
What Does the Supreme Court Decision Say?
Unlike the law numbered 7146, in the decision number 2020/167 of the 8th Civil Chamber of the Konya Regional Court of Justice, it is possible to proceed through two options for the paid military service, which is granted to those who were born before January 1, 1994 and who have not yet completed their military service and have not started their actual military service as of August 3, 2018.
Option 1: Based on Article 14 of Labor Law No. 1475, the employee can terminate the employment contract due to military service and request severance pay from his employer, as in terminations for compulsory military service.
Option 2: In accordance with Article 2 of Law No. 7146, the worker is deemed to be on unpaid leave without terminating his employment contract and has the right to work in the same place at the end of 30 days of basic military education.
As a result of the decision of the Supreme Court setting a precedent, the issue is clarified with these two options of termination or unpaid leave, and the practice is left to the initiative of the worker.
