Supreme Court ruling on annual leave affects millions of employees

The 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation has issued a precedent-setting evaluation regarding the frequently debated issue of short-term annual leave in working life. The Chamber ruled that annual leave taken in periods of less than 10 days with the employee's request and consent does not, by itself, constitute grounds for a justified termination of the employment contract by the employee.

In the case file subject to the ruling, an employee who worked as an assistant customs broker for 9 years resigned, claiming that their annual leave requests during periods of need were rejected due to workload. The employee filed a lawsuit demanding severance pay, annual leave pay, and unpaid premiums, alleging that they could take at most 6 days of leave consecutively, that they were owed 68 days of leave pay, and that their premiums were not paid.

The defendant employer argued that the employee resigned, had used a portion of their annual leave, that the unused leave had been compensated, and that the premium payments were not continuous. The court of first instance accepted that the employee had terminated the contract for a justified reason and partially accepted the case regarding severance pay and annual leave pay, while rejecting the premium claim. The Regional Court of Justice also rejected the employer's appeals.

COURT OF CASSATION: EMPLOYEE CONSENT IS DECISIVE

Reviewing the file, the 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation drew attention to Article 56 of the Labor Law No. 4857. According to the article, annual paid leave cannot, as a rule, be divided by the employer; even if it is divided upon the agreement of the parties, one of the leave periods must not be less than 10 days.

However, the Chamber evaluated that although it was observed in the concrete case that annual leave was taken in periods of less than 10 days, this division was made with the employee's request and consent. It was stated that the employee could not prove that they had submitted a request for longer leave in writing at least one month in advance, but that the employer had forced them to take shorter leave.

With this ruling, the presence of leave periods shorter than 10 days in annual leave records will not in every case grant the employee the right to justified termination. If it is understood that short-term leave was taken with the employee's request and consent, these leave periods may be considered valid.