What is collective leave? Can an employer make everyone take annual leave at once?

What is collective leave?

Collective leave means having the whole workplace, or part of it, take annual leave in the same period. Factories where production stops at certain times, workplaces that close in summer and facilities with maintenance periods use this approach.

The basis is the Annual Paid Leave Regulation, issued under Art. 60 of the Labour Law:

• Art. 10: Between the beginning of April and the end of October, the employer may apply collective leave to all or some employees. Collective leave may also include employees who have not yet earned leave.
• Art. 11: A sufficient number of employees may be kept out of collective leave for essential tasks. They take their leave before or after the collective leave, on dates they choose.

In which months can collective leave be applied?

Only between the beginning of April and the end of October. For example, closing the workplace from 1 to 14 August and applying collective annual leave is possible; applying collective annual leave from 27 December to 7 January does not comply with the Regulation.

Outside this period, annual leave is taken at the employee's request with the employer's approval. For short closures such as New Year or between public holidays, the employer may grant paid leave or arrange make-up work (Labour Law, Art. 64); it cannot deduct these days from annual leave without the employee's consent. See our guide to public holidays and half-day eves for details.

Can employees who are not yet entitled be included?

Yes. Art. 10 of the Regulation expressly says collective leave may include employees who have not yet earned leave. Such an employee uses in advance the leave they will earn on their next entitlement date; in practice this is called advance leave.

The law does not regulate advance leave in detail. Points to note:

• Advance leave should not exceed the leave that will be earned on the next entitlement date. Deducting any excess from later years is disputed because of the offsetting prohibition in Art. 56/4.
• If the employee leaves before becoming entitled, deducting the advance leave from their pay is not recommended; no reasoned Court of Cassation decision on this point could be found.
• Recording advance leave in writing prevents later disagreements.

How long should collective leave be?

The Regulation does not set a length for collective leave, but collective leave is subject to the general rules in Art. 56 of the Labour Law. The employer cannot split annual leave; by agreement it may be taken in parts, one of which must be at least ten days (Art. 56/3).

So using up an employee's annual leave piece by piece through short collective closures, without their consent, is risky. The safe approach is to plan collective leave long enough to cover employees' entitlement and at least ten days. If shorter collective leave is planned, employees' written consent should be obtained.

We explain the splitting rules in detail in our guide to scheduling and splitting annual leave.

Employees kept out of collective leave

Under Art. 11 of the Regulation, a sufficient number of employees may be kept out of collective leave for essential tasks, such as security, maintenance, shipping or customer service. They take their annual leave before or after the collective leave, on dates they choose. Being kept at work does not remove their right to leave.

Collective leave and other rules

• Public holidays are not counted as leave. If collective leave spans a public holiday, the holiday is not counted towards the leave (Art. 56/5).
• Leave pay is paid in advance. For collective leave too, leave pay is paid before the leave starts, in advance or as an advance (Art. 57).
• A record is kept. Days used during collective leave are entered in each employee's annual leave record (Art. 56/6). You can use our ready-made annual leave record template.
• Leave committee. In workplaces with more than one hundred employees, leave schedules are prepared by a leave committee (Regulation, Arts. 15–16); in smaller workplaces this is done by the employer together with a representative chosen by the employees (Art. 18).

How İzin360 handles it

• Collective leave action: HR creates leave records for all active employees of a department or the whole company in one step; each record is created as approved and written to the audit log.
• Period check: For annual leave, collective leave can only be applied between 1 April and 31 October; dates outside are rejected.
• Day count: Weekly rest days and public holidays are not counted as leave; each employee's balance is reduced only by working days, and the team calendar updates automatically.