A temporary employment relationship ("Relationship") is established when a company sends its employee to work for another company (the "Customer") on a temporary basis.

Before the amendment made to Turkish Labour Law on 6/5/2016; any company could have established the Relationship with other companies subject to a time limitation.

With the amendment, now only:

(i) private employment offices (which have a temp license obtained from the Turkish Employment Agency) can execute the Relationship with other companies, and

(ii) group companies / holding companies can execute the Relationship within their group.

In this article, we will focus on Relationships established by private employment offices.

Limitations:

The Relationship can only be established under certain circumstances and periods of time, as per the table below.

Circumstance

Duration *

1

When a Customer employee's employment is temporarily suspended

(e.g. in case of maternity leave, military leave, annual leave, sick leave etc.)

During the suspension period.

2

Unforeseen necessity to increase the average service / production capacity of the Customer to a level that necessitates the Relationship to be established

(e.g. sudden demand increase etc.)

Initially 4 months. Can be renewed 2 times (total period cannot exceed 8 months – this apparent conflict is still unclear).

Additional limitation: Employees assigned with the Relationship cannot exceed 25% of the Customers total employee number working at the workplace. However, if there are 10 or less employees at the workplace, then Relationships can be established with up to 5 employees.

3

Increase in periodical work load of the Customer (except for seasonal work)

(e.g. foreseeable situations such as production of flags prior to an election, workload during a reporting period etc.)

4 months.

4

Works that are not considered as the day-to-day business of the Customer and intermittent works

(e.g. development of a new software, technical maintenance of an equipment, repair etc.)

Initially 4 months. Can be renewed 2 times (total period cannot exceed 8 months – this apparent conflict is still unclear).

5

Seasonal agricultural works and house works

(e.g. cleaning work, child and elderly care services etc.)

No time limitation.

6

Emergency works with respect to occupational health and safety

(e.g. repair and alteration works required for the safety of the employees)

or occurrence of force majeure events that significantly affecting service / production

(e.g. fire, flood, terrorism etc.)

Initially 4 months. Can be renewed 2 times (total period cannot exceed 8 months-it is still unclear).

* if the stated durations are exceeded, employees will become employees of the Customer. Calculation of the total duration of the Relationship, including renewals, is still unclear.

Additionally, Relationships cannot be established:

  • at customer workplaces in which collective redundancy has taken place within the last 8 months
  • in public institutions and organizations
  • at underground mining works
  • If six months has not yet passed following the end of the previous Relationship for the same work of the Customer.

Lastly, the Customer shall not establish a Relationship with any previously employee that they have terminated, unless at least six months has passed following their termination date.

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.