Guides
Leave law guides
Practical guides for HR teams, based on statutory articles and established case law, with worked examples.
Annual leave
How is annual leave calculated?
Annual leave depends on the years of service completed on the entitlement date (the anniversary of the start date): 14 days for 1–5 years (5 included), 20 days for 6–14 years and 26 days for 15 years or more (Labour Law No. 4857, Article 53(4)). Employees aged 18 or younger or 50 or older get at least 20 days, and underground workers get 4 extra days. The first entitlement requires at least one year of service, probation included.
7 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
When must annual leave be granted, and can it be split?
The employer must grant annual leave during the year of service following the one in which it was earned (Labour Law No. 4857, Article 54(4)); the employer has discretion over the dates and is not bound by the dates the employee asks for (Annual Paid Leave Regulation, Article 8). The employer may not split leave on its own; by agreement it can be taken in parts, but one part must be at least 10 days (Article 56(3)).
7 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
Do Saturdays count as annual leave?
Under the settled view of the Court of Cassation's 9th Civil Chamber since 2021, Saturday is as a rule a working day: even in a five-day week where nobody works on Saturday, a Saturday that falls within annual leave counts as a leave day. It does not count if the employment contract or collective agreement expressly makes Saturday a weekly rest day. Weekly rest days, national holidays and public holidays never count as leave (Labour Law No. 4857, Article 56(5)).
7 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
Other leave
What is unpaid leave and how does it affect annual leave?
The Labour Law does not give employees a general right to unpaid leave. Apart from the cases the law lists, such as travel leave, up to six months of unpaid leave after maternity leave, half-time work and foster parent leave, unpaid leave rests on agreement between employee and employer. Agreed unpaid leave does not count as time worked for annual leave and pushes the next entitlement date back by the same number of days (Art. 54(2)); it can never be deducted from the annual leave balance (Art. 56(4)).
7 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
How many days of paternity, marriage and bereavement leave?
Under Additional Article 2 of the Labour Law, employees get 3 days of paid leave when they marry, adopt a child, or lose a parent, spouse, sibling or child, and 10 days of paid leave when their spouse gives birth. Law No. 7578 raised paternity leave from 5 to 10 days from 1 May 2026. This leave is never deducted from annual leave and counts as time worked for annual leave entitlement.
7 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
How long is maternity leave?
Under Article 74 of Labour Law No. 4857, a female employee may not be made to work for 8 weeks before and 16 weeks after the birth, 24 weeks in total; for a multiple pregnancy 2 weeks are added before the birth, making 26 weeks. These lengths took effect on 1 May 2026 under Law No. 7578. If she wishes, the employee may also take up to 6 months of unpaid leave once maternity leave ends.
7 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
How does nursing leave work, and what is half-time work?
A female employee gets a total of 1.5 hours of nursing leave a day to breastfeed a child under one; she decides at which hours and in how many parts to take it, and the time counts as working time (Art. 74(7)). After maternity leave the employee may, on request, take unpaid leave equal to half of the weekly working time for 60 days after a first birth, 120 after a second and 180 after later births (half-time work, Art. 74(2)). The nursing leave rules do not apply during half-time work.
6 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
Pay and overtime
How is holiday pay paid, and what happens to unused leave on termination?
The employer must pay holiday pay in advance, before the employee starts the leave (Labour Law No. 4857, Article 57). However the employment contract ends, the pay for all unused annual leave days is calculated on the wage at the date the contract ended (Article 59), and the limitation period for this claim is five years from termination (Additional Article 3). While employment continues, leave cannot be converted to cash.
6 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
How is time off in lieu for overtime calculated?
If the employee wishes, overtime is compensated with time off instead of pay: 1 hour 30 minutes for each hour of overtime and 1 hour 15 minutes for each hour of extra hours (Labour Law No. 4857, Art. 41/4). The time off must be granted within six months, during working hours and without any deduction from pay (Art. 41/5). Time off not used in that period is not lost; it is paid as overtime at the premium rate.
7 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
Holidays
Which days are public holidays, and when does the half-day eve start?
Under Law No. 2429, 29 October is the national holiday, and 1 January, 23 April, 1 May, 19 May, 15 July, 30 August and the Ramadan Feast and Feast of Sacrifice are general holidays. On 28 October and on religious holiday eves the holiday starts at 13:00. National and general holidays that fall within annual leave are not counted as leave days (Labour Law No. 4857, Art. 56/5).
7 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
KVKK
How should employee leave data be processed under KVKK, and is explicit consent needed?
The employer is the data controller for leave data. Because leave calculation and leave requests rest on performing the employment contract and on legal obligations, employees should not be asked for explicit consent; give them a privacy notice and record only that they have read it (Board decision 2022/797, Principle Decision 2026/347). For special category data such as sick notes, the adequate measures set by the Board, including at least two-factor authentication for remote access, are mandatory (KVKK Art. 6/4, Board decision 2018/10). Employees' KVKK requests must be answered free of charge within 30 days at the latest (Art. 13/2).
7 min read · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026
This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. Legislation and case law can change; consult an employment law specialist about your company's circumstances.
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