The Bill of Law on the Amendments to Law of Unemployment Insurance and Certain Laws (“The Bill”) has been under discussion in Grand National Assembly of Turkey for a while and the Bill has been accepted recently and become a law.

Please find below detailed information about the amendments made to the labor law within the scope of the Bill.

A. Amendments to Labor Law No.4857:

The phrase “expiration of fixed term employment or service contracts, closure of workplace and termination of workplace’s activities due to any reason, all kinds of service procurements realized in accordance with the relevant legislation and termination of construction works” has been added to the first paragraph of Provisional Article 10 of Labor Law numbered 4857 after the phrase of “conditions and similar reasons” and the phrase of “six months” in the fourth paragraph has been changed to “for a maximum of three months each time until 30.06.2021”.

With these amendments, term of prohibition on termination of employment is foreseen to be extended until 30.06.2021, with maximum of 3 months each time and expiration of fixed term employment or service contracts, closure of the workplace and termination of workplace’s activities due to any reason, any service procurements realized in accordance with the relevant legislation and termination of construction works are excluded from the scope of prohibition on termination of employment.

B. Amendments to the Unemployment Insurance Law No. 4447:

1. The phrase “and / or the duration of the short-time working allowance separately as sectoral or as a whole” has been added after the phrase of “application date” to the third paragraph of the Provisional Article 23 which regulates the provisions regarding short-term working applications made due to compelling reasons arising from Covid-19, of the Unemployment Insurance Law numbered 4447.

In this context, the related paragraph is amended as “The President is authorized to extend the application date and / or the duration of the short-time working allowance separately as sectoral or as a whole under this article until 31.12.2020 and to differentiate the days specified in the first paragraph”.

2. The following temporary article has been added to the Unemployment Insurance Law No. 4447. This article will enter into force at the beginning of the month following the publication date of the Law; within the scope of this article, detailed provisions regarding the support of premium that will be provided to employers and to be covered by the Unemployment Insurance Fund after the end of short-time working period at the workplaces are included.

“TEMPORARY ARTICLE 26- Within the scope of the Temporary Article 23, for the insured employees benefiting from the short-term working allowance in private sector workplaces that applied for a short-term working before 1/7/2020; in the event that the short work at the workplace ends and the employees return to their normal weekly working hours at the same workplace; for the three months from the month following the end of the short-term working and not to exceed the date of 31/12/2020, support of premium amounting to the whole amount of insured employees’ and employer’s share premiums calculated based on the lower contribution limit which is basis to premium determined according to the Article 82 of the Law No. 5510, is provided to the employer by deducting all premiums to be paid to the Authority and the support amount is covered by the Fund.

Under the Temporary Article 24, if the insured employee who applied before the date of 1/7/2020 and received cash wage support, returns to the weekly normal working period, the employer shall benefit from the support under the first paragraph for the relevant insured employee within the terms and conditions specified in the relevant paragraph.

The duration of support to be provided to the employer for each month within the scope of the first and second paragraphs; for those who receive short-term working allowance cannot exceed the average monthly number of days in which the insured employee receives short-term working allowance under temporary article 23 and for those who benefit from the cash wage support provided under temporary article 24 cannot exceed the average number of days in which they receive cash wage support.

The provisions of this article do not apply to the workplaces belonging to institutions and organizations falling within the scope of the second paragraph of Article 30 of Law No. 5335 and the purchase and construction works carried out pursuant to Law No. 2886, Law No. 4734 and provisions of international agreements and the workplaces of purchase and construction works which are excluded from the Law No.4734 and employees subject to social security support premium and the insured employees working in the home services and the insured employees working abroad within the scope of the additional article 9 of the Law. 5510.

In the event that it is determined that the workplace benefits from the short-term working applied within the scope of the temporary article 23 in an improper manner or if the determination of the eligibility for the short work application is found to be negative, or if it is found out that the workplace has unduly benefited from the cash wage support under the provisional article 24, the workplace cannot benefit from the support provided under this article or shall be deemed as it has unduly benefited. In the event that it is found out that support is unduly benefited within the scope of this article, the amount of Support benefited shall be collected from the employer in accordance with the second paragraph of the article 89 of the Law No. 5510 along with the default penalty and the default increase.

Employers that benefit from the incentives provided with this article cannot benefit from other insurance premium discounts, incentives and supports for the same insured employees during the benefited month.

The payment of the amount of support provided to the employer by the Fund within the scope of this article corresponding to the insured’s share cannot be requested from the employer.

The amounts covered by the Fund under this article shall not be taken into account as income, expense or cost in income and corporate tax practices.

The President is authorized to extend the three-month period specified in the first paragraph, up to six months, as sectoral separately or as a whole.

The procedures and principles regarding the implementation of this article are determined by the Ministry.”

C. Amendments to the Law on Occupational Health and Safety No. 6331:

The phrase “1/7/2020” in sub-clause (1) of sub-paragraph (a) of the 1st paragraph of Article 38 of the Occupational Health and Safety Law numbered 6331 has been changed to “31/12/2023”. This article entered into force on the date of its publication, effective from 01.07.2020.

With this amendment, the obligation to employ an occupational physician and occupational safety specialist in workplaces with less than 50 employees and in a less hazardous class, which was regulated to enter into force on 01.07.2020 under the Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331, has been postponed until 31.12.2023.