Bad news from the Court of Cassation for commission-based employees
The 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation has issued a ruling that will disappoint those working on a salary-plus-commission basis. The High Court ruled that for work performed under a salary-plus-commission system, the basis for overtime pay shall be the fixed salary, and that commission payments shall not be taken into account when calculating overtime pay.
İHA
A.B., who worked in the marketing department of a company, resigned due to retirement. Unable to collect severance pay, annual leave pay, and salary receivables, A.B. took the case to the Labor Court, stating that they had not received their commissions and overtime pay.
The plaintiff employee claimed that they had worked on national holidays and public holidays, that no additional payment had been made for this work, that their annual leave had not been granted, and that the payment made under the name of annual leave payment was insufficient, requesting that the defendant be ordered to pay for overtime, national and public holidays, weekly rest days, and annual leave.
COMPANY DENIED THE CLAIMS
The defendant company denied the claims. The Labor Court decided to partially accept the case on the grounds that the plaintiff had terminated the employment contract due to retirement, was entitled to severance pay, had performed overtime, had worked on public holidays according to witness statements, had failed to prove the claim for weekly rest pay, and that the 70-day annual leave pay had not been paid by the defendant employer.
"NO EFFECT ON OVERTIME PAY CALCULATION"
The defendant's lawyer appealed the decision. The Regional Court of Justice rejected the appeal. When the lawyers for both parties appealed the decision, the 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation intervened. The Court of Cassation's decision, which stated that commission payments cannot be included in overtime pay, included the following statements:
"If the wage consists of a fixed salary and a commission based on targets or quotas, in practices where commission payments are based on targets or exceeding a certain quota, the employee's overtime pay is paid at 150 percent of the hourly rate based on the fixed salary. In other words, such commission payments have no effect on the calculation of overtime pay. In the concrete case, it is understood that the plaintiff received a wage based on a guaranteed salary and a target-based commission. It is understood that in the expert report taken as the basis for the judgment, the wage portion of the overtime claim was calculated at 150 percent, the commission portion was calculated at 150 percent, and the plaintiff's guaranteed salary was determined in the calculation table as a wage whose determination from the guaranteed salary determined by years is not understood, and the total amount was multiplied once more by 1.61, which is the ratio of the determined wage to the minimum wage. It has been unanimously ruled that the decision of the Regional Court of Justice regarding the rejection of the appeal against the appealed Labor Court decision be overturned and the first instance court decision be reversed."