Turkish Labor Law
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OVERVIEW
Employers have a number of obligations before and following delivery in case of pregnancy of their employees.
In general, it is essential that pregnant employees are given leave for 8 weeks (56 days) both before and after delivery making 112 days in total. Since pregnant employees shall be paid disability allowance (maternity pay) during that period, employers are not bound to make payment. Employers, however, may continue to make payment based on their own discretion.
For multiple pregnancy, the leave to be granted before delivery shall be 10 weeks (70 days).
Nevertheless, employees may continue to work until as late as the 3rd week before delivery (generally until 37th week of pregnancy) provided that a medical report is secured to that end. In that case, leave entitlement before delivery shall be added to the leave entitlement after delivery.
Paid leave shall be granted to employees for periodical examinations all through pregnancy.
PROCESS
Pre-delivery medical report shall be issued by a doctor in printed form. The report shall provide the start date of leave but the date of birth and end date of the report shall be left blank as they are not exactly known at that period. Employees are supposed to present the report to their employers although they may not submit it in printed form. In that case, the notification entered by the medical institution to SGK (Abbreviation of Turkish Social Security Institution) online system shall be taken into consideration. Whenever an online entry is made, an informative e-mail shall be sent to the e-mail address of the employer available in SGK indicating that the medical institution entered the report into the system which is currently pending approval of the employer. Employers are bound to approve the report over SGK system until the 23rd of the month following the end date of the report. Granting approval shall not be solely sufficient to receive maternal pay and it is necessary to enter the report over the login screen of SGK system as to the fact that the employee does not work at the relevant period and “the insured has not worked during the leave period” must be checked on e-declaration.
Report issued for the period before delivery shall expire simultaneously with delivery and the one for the period after delivery shall be effective as of the date of birth. Total number of both leaves shall not exceed 112 days for single delivery and 126 days for multiple delivery. It is essential that the report issued for the period before delivery is concluded as of the date of birth to be succeeded by the one for the period after delivery. Accordingly, the doctor is expected to enter the end date on the first report. This means that the report is duly terminated.
The report used to be sent to SGK directorate and a SGK hospital for approval in case of delivery in a private hospital but this process is no more applicable due to the decision of SGK. A second approval is not sought for reports issued by private hospitals as a special practice for maternal reports.
ALLOWANCE
In order to receive payment from SGK;
An employee must be actively working at the work place under SGK as of the date of leave and have minimum 90-day premium payment within the last one year prior to delivery in addition to not working at the work place during the leave period and the delivery must occur.
Allowance is calculated by multiplying the average daily amount of earnings subject to premium for the last 3 months prior to taking maternal leave with the total number of leave days and calculating 2/3 of the relevant amount. In addition to that payment, one-off breastfeeding allowance is paid which is TRY 103.00 for 2014. In order to receive the breastfeeding allowance, the employee or her husband should personally apply to SGK in order to fill in the relevant form.
Employers are not bound to make payment to their employees during the leave period. Still, some employers may continue to make payment based on their own discretion. In that case, the employee shall return the allowance granted by SGK to her employer. The amounts received from the employer and SGK shall not be equal. The difference may be kept by the employee as a “favour” based on the discretion of the employer. Likewise, the breastfeeding allowance shall be kept by the employee and not returned to the employer. Solely the maternity allowance received for the leave period shall be returned to the employer.
Employees may enquire the status of their maternal allowances via https://esgm.sgk.gov.tr or www.turkiye.gov.tr by using their e-state passwords.
Employees may demand their maternal pays from any branch of Ziraat Bank by submitting their ID cards within 15 days as from the 23rd of the month following the end date of the report.
Potential problems and solutions as of March 2014
We would like to remind you that the problems and solutions have been explained based on specific cases and experience rather than having legal basis.
SGK has established an online system in order to make an end to submit maternal and sick leaves in printed form. Nevertheless, as the necessary infrastructure is not available all through the country, reports are issued in both online and printed form.
- Failure of the doctor to add the end date to the report.
In that case, employers calculate the end date themselves in order to enter the birth report before legal deadline. That is because many of the doctors do not fill in the end date of the report and reject the request of employees to close the report although they have no right to do so. It is not possible for the report to be closed by any doctor other than the one issuing it.
- Failure in displaying the allowance on the system although report dates are correct
This may have a number of reasons. For instance, the report may not have been approved yet as it does not appear on approval screen. In that case, it shall be necessary to wait for the report to appear on approval screen.
Alternatively, the report may lack a registration over notification entry screen informing that the employee has not actively worked during the leave period. In that case, it is necessary to enter that information.
Another reason may be that SGK does not approve allowance. This is a problem, which is experienced by employees lately. SGK requires the employee to contact in person so that the situation might be corrected. The reason for such requirements is that SGK wishes to inform the employee in person and resolve the problem as quickly as possible. The dates are confirmed with the employee who is also informed about how the problem shall be resolved, if any, so as to accelerate the process. Nevertheless, individual SGK directorates have different procedures to that end and there is no standard method applicable.
