Turkish Labor Law
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Shorter working time is defined as temporarily shortening of weekly working time in an establishment by the employer at least at the portion of 1/3 or at least four weeks or temporarily suspending work wholly or partially. Shorter working time shall not exceed in any case three months.
In accordance with Law issued in Official Gazette no 2711 (repeated) dated 18 February 2009, exclusively for shorter working time applications made in 2008-2009, the maximum three months period envisaged for shorter working time can be applied as six months. On demand of the employer, the period can be exceeded to six months for the establishments who have applied for suitability evaluation before the provision was issued…
Selçuk Kocabıyık
Council Chamber of MESS
Shorter working time and its pay has been a rare practice in our legislation until the last quarter of 2008, when we started to feel the effects of global economic crisis. The regulation in Labor Law no 4857 regarding shorter working time was omitted from law by Law no 5763: Law on Amendment to Labor Law and Other Laws and a similar regulation regarding the content is added to Unemployment Insurance Law no 4447 as Appendix 2. That regulation provided the employees subject to Sea Labor Law and Press Labor Law along with those subject to Labor Law the opportunity to benefit from shorter working time pay. When regulation regarding shorter working time was under Labor Law, a bylaw was issued in order to define application principles after the regulation was put under Unemployment Insurance Law, a new bylaw was issued by Minister of Labor and Social Security and the previous regulation was abolished.
Law on Amendment to Labor Law and Other Law issued in Official Gazette No.27109 dated 13 January 2009 contain provisions similar to previous bylaw in general terms.
Shorter working time is defined as temporarily shortening of weekly working time in an establishment by the employer at least at the portion of 1/3 or at least four weeks or temporarily suspending work wholly or partially. Shorter working time shall not exceed in any case three months.
In accordance with Law issued in Official Gazette no 2711 (repeated) dated 18 February 2009, exclusively for shorter working time applications made in 2008-2009, the maximum three months period envisaged for shorter working time can be applied as six months. On demand of the employer, the period can be exceeded to six months for the establishments who have applied for suitability evaluation before the provision was issued.
Considerable Shortening of Weekly Working Time
Widely use of shorter working time and its pay brings about some problems. One of the problems encountered is shortening of working time in the establishments. The law mentions considerable shortening of weekly working time and the bylaw defines that shortening period as at least at the rate of one third. According to oral information obtained from Labor Supervisory Commission, that regulation is interpreted as the need for considerable shortening of working time in the establishment for each week during the shorter working time period. In our opinion, while evaluating* considerably shorter working time notio , average weekly working time for every month of shorter working time period should be taken as basis. Strict interpretation of statements in law and bylaw can cause unfair practices.
For instance, assume that in (A) establishment, work was suspended for two weeks in one month and continued more than 45 hours in the other two weeks. In that case, at the end of the month, there will be 12 days of non-work in the establishment .
In (B) establishment, assume that work continued for 4 working days and was suspended for 1-day week. At the end of themonth, there will be a total of 8 days of non-work. If the considerable shortening of weekly working is interpreted in a strict way, and applied to every week separately, the employers working (A) establishment will not be entitled to shorter working time pay although they have more non-worked days but the employees working in (B) establishment will be entitled to
shorter working time pay despite the fact that they have less non-working days. Production processes of industry andimmediate changes in demands and purchase orders make it harder for the establishments to schedule their working tim es at the portion of one third of working days. Taking the necessity of the fact into consideration that shorter working time period should not be less than four weeks and that shorter working time pay is calculated according to non-worked days
within a month; defining shorter working time on basis of monthly average working time will bring forth results that are more suitable for the purpose of entitlement to shorter working time.
In practice, the employers, out of social ideas or establishment policy, sometimes pay for shorter time the wage corresponding to the time not worked, and as those payments are subject to premium, and notifications of these payments should be made to Social Security Institution, the employees prepare the monthly premium and service documents in a way that the employees appear to be working full time for the month.
While evaluating the acceptability of the application for shorter working time, the notifications made to Social Security Institution as of the day shorter working time started are examined; in case it is ascertained that no shorter working time is specified in the monthly premium and service documents, as the employees will appear to be working full time, the short working time applications are not approved. In notifications made to the Institution starting with the actual starting of shorter working time, it is important to specify shortened working days in terms of determining shorter working time period.
Which Premium Will Be Paid by Turkish Employment Agency?
The bylaw envisages that during the period an employee is entitled to shorter working time payment, the insurance premium that is to be paid in accordance with Law no 5510 is transferred to Social Security Institution by Unemployment Insurance Fund. According to Law no 5510 61/d, the employees who benefited from unemployment insurance benefits and shorter working time, starting from the date he has started benefiting from unemployment insurance benefits and shorter working time, they
are subject to General Health Insurance. In the Protocol signed between Turkish Employment Organization and Social Security Institution on 6 February 2009 and came into effect on 1 October 2008, it is determined that payment of General Health Insurance premium of those who benefit from shorter working time will be transferred to Turkish Employment Organization.
Turkish Employment Organization pays only General Health Insurance premium of those who benefit from shorter working time employment.
The effects of global economic crisis on our industry started to manifest themselves by the year-end of 2008 and increasingly continued in the first quarter of 2009. As a result of extraordinary reduction in demands and purchase orders, there has been a dramatic decrease in production and working time. Shorter working time pay has relatively disburdened both the employers and the employees during economic crisis and extension of period for entitlement to pay to six month turned out to be a possible development. As a result of the statuary change authorized by Law no 5838, the Council of Ministers is authorized to extend the shorter working time for another six months. In regard to the expectation that 2009 will not be a bright year for our industry, most probably the need for extending the short time working period for another six month will arise. It is important to take precautions to fight against the causes of economic crisis at the source as well as liminating the adverse outcomes of it. It is our wish that adverse effects of economical crisis be eliminated and that the stablishments will continue their production and contribute to Turkey’s economy and increase in employment as it was before without being in the need of shorter working time pay.
Source: MESS Employer Gazette,2009
