Turkey: General Legal Framework On Private Employment Agencies And Their Fields Of Activity

A. IN GENERAL

In practice, private employment agencies, which in practice referred to as human resources companies:

• The Labor Law No. 4857 ("Labor Law")
• The Law No. 4904 on Certain Regulations Relation to the Turkish Employment Agency ("Law")
• The Regulation on Private Employment Agencies ("Regulation") published by the Turkish Employment Agency ("Authority")
• The Circular on Private Employment Agencies ("Circular")

have been regulated and have found their place in the legislation by being explained and defined in more than one regulation.

Private employment agencies in accordance with the Regulation published by the Authority, is defined as;

In addition to the definition made, it should be stated that; The establishment of private employment agencies is subject to the permission of the Authority in accordance with the provisions of Articles 17 et seq. of the Law. Once more, regarding the need to obtain permission for the establishment of a private employment agency, Article 90 of the Labor Law:

In accordance with its provision, it is clearly stated that permission must be obtained from the Authority before the establishment of a private employment agency.

In this regard, during the establishment of private employment agencies, which are referred to as human resources companies in practice, the permits to be obtained from the Authority and the prerequisites to be provided as a priority in the applications to be made for obtaining these permits are particularly important.

B. FIELDS OF ACTIVITY OF PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES

It is regulated that in the Law that permission must be obtained from the Authority for the establishment of private employment agencies. Pursuant to the provisions of the Law, the Authority has published the relevant Regulation and the and the Private Employment Agencies Circular No. 2016/1 ("Circular") in order to determine the procedures and principles regarding the operations of private employment agencies and the permits they must obtain.

First of all, it should be stated that; in accordance with the provision in Article 4 of the Regulation, private employment agencies can engage in activities/operations such as;

• Intermediation for finding jobs and employees in Turkey and abroad,
• Services for the labor market, employment and human resources within the scope of intermediation activities,
• Organizing professional/vocational training,
• Establishment of temporary employment relationship in case of authorization.

In the case of a temporary employment relationship to be established if authorized, it will be possible in cases specified in Article 7 of the Labor Law and in cases where a temporary employment relationship can be established. In particular, intermediary activities from the above-mentioned areas can be carried out face-to-face, as well as by written means provided that permission is obtained from the Authority, or by radio, television, video, internet, cable broadcasting or electronic information communication tools and similar means of finding jobs and workers.

It is important to emphasize that private employment agencies cannot carry out intermediary activities for the staff and positions of public institutions and organizations. In addition, even if the private employment agency is authorized in terms of the activities of establishing temporary employment relations, it cannot carry out the activity of employing temporary employees for a period of eight months in workplaces where collective layoffs of employees are made in accordance with Article 7 of the Labor Law, in public institutions and organizations and in workplaces where underground mines are extracted.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.