Termination of employment contract for valid reason – Authors – Resul KURT

Certain conditions must be taken into consideration when terminating an indefinite-term employment contract by the employer for valid reason. When employment contracts are terminated by the employer, the reason for termination must be “valid” unless there are circumstances listed in Article 25 of Law No. 4857.

An employer who terminates an indefinite-term employment contract of an employee with at least six months of experience in workplaces employing thirty or more workers must base the termination on a valid reason arising from the employee’s competence or behavior, or the requirements of the enterprise, workplace or job.

As a matter of fact, job security refers to the employee’s protection mechanism in case the employee’s employment contract cannot be terminated by the employer in accordance with the law. In this context, termination must be based on a valid reason. The reason for termination must be proven by the employer based on information and documents.

In this regard, arbitrary terminations by the employer are prevented.

If it is not proven that the reason for termination is justified or valid, reinstatement results. In this case, the valid reasons can be collected under 3 main headings:

1. Reasons arising from insufficiency of

2. Reasons arising from the person’s behavior,

3. Reasons arising from the location and work requirements.

At the same time, the situations that are not considered valid reasons are the following according to the Law:

union member,

Participating in union activities,

Acting as a union workplace representative,

To exercise legal rights against the giver,

Pregnancy,

Having an illness that lasts as long as the period specified in Article 25 of Law No. 4857, depending on the seniority of the worker.

If the valid reason for termination is due to the employee, it must be demonstrated with information and documents that it is due to either the incompetence of the employee or the employee’s behavior.

When these reasons come to the fore in an ongoing employment relationship, it is necessary to act in accordance with the last resort principle of termination before terminating the employee’s employment contract.

In case of valid internal reasons, termination includes steps such as acting in accordance with the last resort principle, warning the employee in writing, taking the employee’s defense, providing training to the employee on relevant issues if necessary, and even offering to change the lower position.

For example, before the employer terminates the employee for a valid reason due to inadequacy, the employee must first confirm his/her suitability for that job, obtain a defense from the employee regarding the reason for the inadequacy, warn him/her in writing and, if necessary, provide training to eliminate the inadequacy. While all these processes are taking place, the worker must be observed by the employer.

Even though the period is managed in accordance with the last resort principle of termination, if the inadequacy of the job is not resolved, the employer may terminate for a valid reason.

At this stage, it is important to collect information and documents proving that the reason for termination is based on a valid reason, to make the termination notification in writing, and to notify the employee by writing the reason for termination clearly and precisely.

If the employee whose employment contract is terminated for a valid reason has at least a 1-year seniority period, severance pay should be paid, if the notice periods will not be complied with, notice pay should be paid, the remaining annual leave pay, if any, and other entitlements depending on employment.

The separation code of the employee whose contract is terminated by the employer for a valid reason will be reported as “04 – Termination of indefinite-term employment contract by the employer”.