Amendments to the Turkish Labour Law under Law No. 7578: A New Era for Maternity, Paternity and Foster-Family Leave

Adopted on 22 April 2026, Law No. 7578 on the Amendment of the Social Services Law and Certain Other Laws introduces wide-ranging amendments to the Turkish Labour Law No. 4857 that directly affect employer-employee relations. The amendments are particularly significant in respect of maternity leave, paternity leave and the newly introduced foster-family leave, and they have an immediate impact on both employers' human-resources policies and their payroll processes.

The principal amendments to the Labour Law are outlined below.

1. Post-Natal Maternity Leave Extended to 16 Weeks

Article 15 of the Law introduces a significant paradigm shift in Article 74 of the Labour Law.

Previous regime: Female employees could not be employed for a total of 16 weeks, comprising eight weeks before and eight weeks after childbirth.

New regime: Post-natal maternity leave has been extended from 8 to 16 weeks; combined with the 8-week pre-natal period, total maternity leave now reaches 24 weeks.

This amendment is intended to bring Türkiye's post-natal leave periods closer to European Union and OECD averages, enabling mothers to participate more extensively and without interruption in the care of their children during the first months of life.

In line with this change, parallel amendments have been made to Articles 15 and 18 of the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510, aligning the temporary incapacity benefit regime with the new leave periods.

2. Right to Continue Working Before Childbirth: Reduced from Three to Two Weeks

The period set out in the third sentence of Article 74 of the Labour Law has also been revised.

A female employee whose state of health is certified as suitable by a medical report could previously continue to work until the last three weeks before childbirth. Under the new regime, this period has been reduced to the last two weeks. Accordingly, the employee may, if she so wishes, continue working until the last two weeks before childbirth, and the days worked during this period will be added to her post-natal maternity leave.

This amendment extends the employee's pre-natal working flexibility by an additional week and increases the period that may be transferred to post-natal leave to up to six weeks.

3. Foster-Family Leave: A New Institution in Turkish Labour Law

One of the most innovative provisions introduced by the Law is the creation of a dedicated leave entitlement for employees acting as foster parents.

Pursuant to the new sentence added to the first paragraph of Article 74 of the Labour Law, an employee who acts as a foster parent for one or more children, either jointly with his or her spouse or individually, is entitled, upon request, to ten days of unpaid leave following the date on which the child is placed with the foster family.

This provision dovetails with the comprehensive reforms introduced to the foster-family regime under the Social Services Law No. 2828 and represents the labour-law dimension of the policy of encouraging family-based care for children in need of protection in lieu of institutional care.

Comparable leave entitlements have also been introduced in the Civil Servants Law No. 657, the Turkish Armed Forces Personnel Law No. 926, and in the legislation governing Gendarmerie and Coast Guard personnel, giving the regime a holistic character that spans all employment frameworks.

4. Technical Alignment of Breastfeeding and Working-Time Provisions

In light of the extended maternity-leave period, the time periods set out in the sixth paragraph of Article 74 of the Labour Law have likewise been updated:

  • The reference to "sixteen weeks" has been amended to "twenty-four weeks", and
  • The reference to "eighteen weeks" has been amended to "twenty-six weeks".

These adjustments ensure that the rules governing the right to part-time work, breastfeeding leave and nursing breaks operate consistently with the new 24-week base maternity-leave period.

5. Paternity Leave Extended from Five to Ten Days

The amendment to Additional Article 2 of the Labour Law introduced by Article 16 of the Law constitutes a significant development for Turkish labour law.

Previous regime: An employee was entitled to five days of paid leave on the occasion of his wife giving birth.

New regime: This period has been extended to ten days.

The doubling of paternity leave can be regarded as the legislative reflection of the modern approach to childcare and the shared assumption of family responsibilities. The leave is paid and may be claimed irrespective of the employee's seniority or length of service.

6. Provisional Article 1: Entitlement of Employees Currently on Maternity Leave

Provisional Article 1 of Law No. 7578 grants a critical transitional right to those employees whose maternity leave had already expired under the provisions repealed as of the entry into force of the Law, but who, as of 1 April 2026, had not yet completed the twenty-four-week period running from the date of childbirth.

Employees within this scope may, by submitting a request within ten working days from the entry into force of the Law, benefit from an additional eight weeks of maternity leave.

For this provision to be applied effectively, it is important that employers proactively identify the employees falling within the scope of the transitional rule and inform them accordingly, so as to ensure that the ten-working-day mandatory limitation period can be properly observed by the entitled persons.

7. Entry into Force

Pursuant to Article 27 of the Law, Articles 15 and 16, which amend the Labour Law, together with the transitional Provisional Article 1, entered into force on the date of publication of the Law.

Practical Implications for Employers

In light of the above amendments, employers should consider the following key actions:

  • Update of human-resources policies: Revision of leave policies, employee handbooks and template employment contracts to reflect the new leave periods and the new foster-family leave entitlement.
  • Alignment of payroll and social-security processes: Adjustment of the new leave periods in the SGK (Social Security Institution) notifications and temporary incapacity benefit calculations.
  • Identification of employees within the scope of Provisional Article 1: Identification and notification of employees who gave birth after 1 April 2026 and have not yet completed the 24-week period, and management of the process in respect of the ten-working-day application period.
  • Training of managers and HR teams: Internal training to ensure that the new leave categories are correctly applied for the purposes of operational planning and workforce management.
  • Revision of internal directives: Establishment of internal procedures regarding paternity-leave applications and the documentation of foster-parent status.

GEMS Schindhelm Istanbul continues to advise its clients on the implementation of the new rules introduced by Law No. 7578, the updating of internal policies and employment contracts, the operation of the transitional provisions, and the management of any disputes that may arise. Please feel free to contact our team for any queries on this subject.



Author: Gürkan Erdebil