Paid Annual Leave: Entitlement Acquisition, Duration, Granting and Registration System

Paid annual leave, which is a reflection of the right to rest guaranteed by the Constitution, provides the employee with the opportunity to rest without any deduction in wages.

For certain groups of employees, the conditions for acquiring the right to annual leave are regulated by different laws. Therefore, it is important to first determine which legislation the employment relationship is subject to in the concrete case. This article presents the general framework mainly through the systematic approach of Labor Law No. 4857.

Table of Contents

1. What is annual leave?
2. Who acquires the right to annual leave?
3. How is the duration of annual leave determined?
4. When is annual leave granted, how does the leave registration system operate?
5. How are public holidays and other leaves evaluated in calculating leave days?
6. Does Saturday count as a working day in annual leave?
7. How is annual leave pay calculated and when is it paid?
8. Is there a prohibition on working during annual leave?
9. What happens when annual leave is not granted?
10. Annual leave and paid military service: Can the employer deduct it from leave?
11. Travel during annual leave: "Is travel leave included in my annual leave?"
12. Annual leave pay receivable and statute of limitations

1. What is annual leave?

Paid annual leave is a legal right that arises upon completion of a certain period of work by the employee and provides the employee with the opportunity to rest without loss of wages. The purpose of annual leave is for the employee to actually rest. Therefore, the employee's waiver of this right while the employment relationship continues, demanding only wages without taking leave, or the employer's elimination of the annual leave right "with other types of leave" is generally not accepted.

2. Who acquires the right to annual leave?

The general rule for employees within the scope of the Labor Law is that the employee must have worked for the same employer for at least one year, including the probationary period. Upon expiration of this period, the employee acquires the right to annual leave.

However, entitlement to annual leave and its duration are regulated differently in various legislations. Under the Maritime Labor Law, there is a criterion of "working at least six months within a calendar year" for seafarers to acquire annual leave entitlement. In the Press Labor Law, there may be distinctions between periodic/daily publications and different leave durations depending on seniority for journalists.

3. How is the duration of annual leave determined?

In Labour Law No. 4857, the annual leave duration increases gradually according to the employee's total service period with the same employer. The durations stipulated in the law are minimum; they can be increased through individual employment contracts or collective bargaining agreements but cannot be reduced. Therefore, in calculating annual leave, more favourable provisions in the employment contract must also be taken into account alongside the legal minimum durations.

The minimum durations in the Labor Law are:

• From 1 year to 5 years (including 5 years): 14 days
• More than 5 years to less than 15 years: 20 days
• 15 years (inclusive) and above: 26 days

For employees working in underground operations, annual leave durations are applied with an increase of four days each. Additionally, the annual leave duration to be given to employees aged 18 and under as well as employees aged 50 and over cannot be less than 20 days.

In calculating service time, periods when the employee actually started working or was ready at the employer's disposal are important, even if no employment contract was signed.

4. When is annual leave granted, how does the leave registration system operate?

After the annual leave right arises, the employer can make leave planning by considering the requirements of the work and workplace; however, this planning authority does not eliminate the obligation to actually grant the leave. When the employee acquires the right to annual leave, they are not automatically considered on leave; since leave usage directly affects workplace order, a request and approval mechanism must be operated.

The employee notifies the employer in writing of their annual leave request at least one month before the time they wish to use it. In the annual leave request, the employee writes their name and surname, personnel number if any, between which dates they wish to use their leave, and whether they request unpaid travel leave.

The employer is not bound by the leave usage date requested by the employee. However, the employer is expected to make planning taking into account the employee's request and work situation, and to avoid arbitrary practices.

In leave requests falling on the same date, priorities are determined taking into account seniority in the workplace and the date when leave was used in the previous year.

The basic rule regarding the division of annual leave is that the leave should be granted without division. However, annual leave can be divided by agreement of the parties; but one of the parts must be at least 10 days. In fragmented granting below 10 days, conformity with the purpose of the regulation and the circumstances of the concrete case can create discussion, so if there is a practice of partial leave in the workplace, it is important that this be conducted in a clear, transparent and record-based manner.

At this point, the "registration system" is decisive: The employer must be able to demonstrate with written records that they have granted annual leave. According to the Paid Annual Leave Regulation, the employer is obliged to keep the leave registration document included in the annex to the Paid Annual Leave Regulation, showing the leave status of the employees they employ. The employer can also track each employee's annual leave status with a leave book or card index system that will be organized according to the same principles.

Recording and tracking annual leaves, establishing a consistent system containing leave dates, duration and the employee's signature is critically important both in terms of proof in case of legal disputes and in terms of internal audit.

5. How are public holidays and other leaves evaluated in calculating leave days?

Annual leave is evaluated on the basis of "working days" in the Labor Law system. Weekly rest days and national holidays and general holidays falling within the annual leave period are not counted from the annual leave duration; in other words, they are not deducted from leave days. This regulation strengthens the rest purpose of annual leave and provides the employee with an actually longer rest opportunity.

In calculating paid annual leave days, national holidays, weekly rest days and general holidays falling within the leave period are not counted from the leave duration. Other paid and unpaid leaves or rest and sick leaves given by the employer during the year cannot be credited to annual leave. The notice period in case of termination of the employment contract by the employer and the mandatory new job search leaves to be given to the employee cannot overlap with paid annual leave periods.

6. Does Saturday count as a working day in annual leave?

Whether Saturday should be deducted from annual leave is one of the most frequently disputed topics in practice. In the Labor Law, weekly rest is generally defined as uninterrupted rest of at least 24 hours after 45 hours of work. Therefore, Saturday is considered a working day in many working arrangements.

In this framework, the general principles are as follows: If Saturday is actually a working day in the workplace, Saturday is counted as a working day in annual leave calculation and is deducted from leave days. Conversely, if Saturday is not actually a working day in the workplace (five-day working arrangement), the position of Saturday in annual leave calculation is determined by considering together the provisions of the employment contract or collective bargaining agreement, the established practice of the workplace and the working arrangement. In cases where Saturday is explicitly determined as a weekly rest day by contract or collective bargaining agreement, since the weekly rest day falling on leave cannot be counted from the annual leave period, Saturday is also not deducted from annual leave.

Consequently, whether Saturday will be deducted from annual leave is not determined by a uniform rule in each workplace but is determined by the actual working arrangement and contractual/institutional practice.

7. How is annual leave pay calculated and when is it paid?

In determining annual leave pay, overtime wages, premiums, social benefits and wages that employees who are permanent employees of the workplace and work in preparation, completion, cleaning work outside normal hours receive for these works are not taken into account.

The employer is obliged to pay or give as an advance the wages for the annual leave period and other wages and wage-like rights falling within this period to the employee before the employee starts leave.

Wages for weekly rest days, national holidays and general holidays falling within the paid annual leave period are paid separately.

For part-time and on-call workers, wages for the periods they should work falling within the leave period are paid as annual leave pay.

8. Is there a prohibition on working during annual leave?

Since annual leave serves the purpose of rest, if the employee works in another job during the annual leave period, the employer has the possibility to reclaim the wages paid for the leave period.

On the other hand, the employer having the employee actually work during the leave period or expecting the employee to be constantly available is contrary to the purpose of the annual leave right and results in violation of the leave right.

9. What happens when annual leave is not granted?

Failure to actually grant leave despite the arising of the annual leave right is an important risk area during the continuation of the employment relationship.

While the employment relationship continues: Unused annual leave days do not automatically turn into a "monetary claim." The employee must actually use annual leave for rest purposes; the employer is also obliged to grant this right. According to Court of Cassation decisions, systematic failure to grant this right by the employer gives the employee the right to terminate for just cause.

When the employment contract ends: In case of termination of the employment contract for any reason, the annual leave periods that the employee has acquired but not used convert to wages and are paid based on the wage at the date the contract ended. Who terminated the employment contract and in what manner is generally not decisive for the arising of this receivable.

Furthermore, it is not legally possible to erase annual leave periods not used within a year; unused annual leave periods are carried forward to the following year.

10. Annual leave and paid military service: Can the employer deduct it from leave?

Paid military service is, by its nature, the fulfilment of a legal obligation. Therefore, granting the paid military service period as "annual leave" or the employer's unilateral path of "deducting from annual leave" is contrary to the rest purpose of annual leave.

The appropriate approach in practice is to not evaluate the paid military service period within the scope of annual leave, but to handle this period separately as required by the legal obligation. In this framework, the employer must make work organization and personnel planning taking into account paid military service dates; manage the process with a separate registration and documentation system without showing the employee's absence under annual leave records.

11. Travel during annual leave: "Is travel leave included in my annual leave?"

If the employee will spend their annual leave outside the location where the workplace is located and can document this situation, they can request unpaid travel leave for up to a total of four days for going and returning. This time is not counted from paid annual leave days; it does not reduce the employee's annual leave right but is added to annual leave.

Travel leave is not evaluated as a right that the employer must apply on their own initiative, but as an opportunity that comes into play upon the employee's request and documentation. Therefore, operating the request and documentation process is important in practice.

If an employee who has received travel leave wishes to return to work without using this time, the employer is not obliged to let the employee start work before the travel leave period expires.

12. Annual leave pay receivable and statute of limitations

For receivables related to unused annual leave pay, the statute of limitations begins to run from the date the employment contract ended. Subject to originating from the employment contract, the statute of limitations period for annual leave pay receivable is regulated as five years.

Conclusion

In calculating the annual leave pay receivable, the leave days the employee is entitled to according to their working period are determined, leaves taken are deducted, and the remaining number of days is calculated based on the wage at the date the contract ended. At this point, a "risk map" of the concrete case should be created by evaluating together the termination date, leave records, wage slips and contract provisions.

Paid annual leave is a fundamental labour right that safeguards the employee's right to rest and creates an obligation for regular recording and planning on the employer's part. A significant portion of disputes arise from application deficiencies such as not granting leave at all or not recording it despite being granted. Since evaluation must be made taking into account the characteristics of the concrete case and the legislation to which the employment relationship is subject, it is recommended to obtain legal opinion in case of doubt regarding annual leave practices.