Official Gazette / July 14-20, 2025

Workers in accommodation facilities certified by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will be able to work on a schedule of ten days on and one day off, instead of six days on and one day off, provided they give written consent. This change, which merely incorporates into the Labor Law a working pattern already effectively applied in the tourism sector during the summer season, allows workers who have given consent to revert to the standard weekly rest schedule only after 30 days if they withdraw their consent. (Law No. 7553 on Amendments to Certain Laws and Decree-Law No. 375)

The Constitutional Court has ruled that the legal requirement of not being under investigation for certain crimes to become a private security guard is unconstitutional and has annulled it. Prior to the annulment, the legislation considered having an active investigation for sexual offenses, crimes against the constitutional order, and drug-related offenses as grounds for rejection. Following this annulment decision by the Constitutional Court, an application to become a private security guard will be rejected only if there is an ongoing lawsuit filed for the aforementioned crimes; ongoing investigations will no longer be taken into account. (Constitutional Court Decision No. 2024/182 E., 2025/87 K., dated 27.03.2025)

The General Assembly for the Unification of Judgments of the Court of Cassation has established a precedent-setting case law stating that banks may place a block on a retiree's pension if the retiree has consented to such a block when taking out a consumer loan. While all multi-page consumer loan agreements prepared by banks, which no one reads, contain a clause for a direct block on the salary, different chambers of the Court of Cassation had previously issued conflicting rulings on this matter. Although the decision has been reflected in the media as allowing for the garnishment of pensions, the content of the decision indicates that for a block to be placed on a pension, the pension must be received from the bank where the loan was taken; in other words, the bank can make deductions directly from the salary account rather than through enforcement proceedings. This means that if the debtor receives their pension from a different bank, it does not appear possible to use this decision to garnish the pension through enforcement. Nevertheless, I am certain that bank lawyers will use this decision to request that enforcement offices garnish the pensions of retired debtors, and that many enforcement officers who do not examine the decision will rule in favor of garnishing retirees' pensions. Retired debtors who encounter such a situation must file a complaint against the garnishment order. (YİBBGK 2022/2 E. 2025/1 K. 21.03.2025)

The General Assembly for the Unification of Judgments of the Court of Cassation has established another precedent-setting case law stating that within the scope of a construction contract in return for land shares signed between landowners and a contractor, if a land share is transferred to the contractor in the land registry and the contractor sells the land share/independent unit to third parties, the sale made to good-faith third parties who purchased the property from the contractor will remain valid even if the construction contract is retroactively terminated by the court. (YİBBGK 2024/1 E. 2025/2 K. 16.05.2025)

With Presidential Decree No. 10108, civil servants who have given birth or whose spouses have given birth have been granted the right to part-time work, equivalent to half of their regular working hours, until their child starts primary school, provided they work at least 3 days a week and between 3 to 8 hours per day. (Regulation on the Use of Part-Time Work Rights for Civil Servants)

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has extended the period for table eggs to reach the consumer from 21 days to 28 days from the date of laying. (Communiqué (2025/20) on Amendments to the Turkish Food Codex Egg Communiqué (2014/55))