Supreme Court ruling: Worker's 'mistake' deemed grounds for termination without severance

In a case regarding the dismissal of a worker who slept on the job without severance pay, the High Court ruled that violating occupational health and safety rules constitutes a valid reason for termination in itself, regardless of whether any damage occurred and without the need for prior warning. The ruling stated that a worker caught sleeping on the job can be dismissed immediately without receiving severance or notice pay.

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Supreme Court ruling: Worker's 'mistake' deemed grounds for termination without severance

The Supreme Court has ruled that violating occupational health and safety rules constitutes a valid reason for termination in itself, regardless of whether any damage occurred and without the need for prior warning.

The High Court issued a ruling stating that a worker who sleeps on the job should be dismissed immediately without being paid severance or notice pay.

According to the information obtained, 3 workers operating a CNC machine at a factory in Bursa allegedly left the machine running and slept in the repair shop for an hour. Upon the situation being reported to management, the 3 personnel were accused of disregarding occupational safety rules and were dismissed without their severance pay.

"WE SOMETIMES LEAVE THE MACHINE RUNNING UPON INSTRUCTION"

Following the incident, the 3 workers approached the Bursa 7th Labor Court and drew attention to the heavy workload. They stated that there were times when they monitored more than one machine at once, and that they sometimes left the machine running upon instruction when going to lunch, during tea breaks, and even when leaving work at night.

They argued that, considering they had no prior disciplinary records or written warnings during their employment, the act did not reach the level of a valid termination, emphasizing that they had witnesses who could testify that they were monitoring multiple machines at the same time.

SUPREME COURT EMPHASIZES 'OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY'

The court rejected the plaintiffs' claims for severance and reinstatement. After the plaintiffs' lawyers filed appeals, the 3rd, 9th, and 12th Civil Chambers of the Regional Court of Justice issued conflicting rulings, leading the Supreme Court's 9th Civil Chamber to intervene following the lawyers' appeal.

The ruling recalled that Article 25 of Law No. 4857 lists the endangering of workplace safety by the worker, either intentionally or through negligence, as a valid reason for termination by the employer. It was emphasized that occupational safety provisions are rules that must be strictly followed to protect worker health and safety. It was stated that if a danger to work safety arises as a result of a worker's intentional behavior or neglect of duty, the employer gains the right to immediate termination for just cause.

The Supreme Court ruling noted that there is no need for the worker to be warned or reminded about this matter, nor is it necessary for any specific damage to have occurred.

The ruling included the following statements:

"The mere act of a night-shift worker sleeping does not constitute a valid reason for termination as long as it does not endanger work safety and no prior warning has been given regarding the disruption of work. In such a case, it cannot be accepted that the termination is based on a valid reason without the worker being warned about this behavior and without proving what kind of negative consequences this act of sleeping caused in the workplace. As can be seen, whether a termination is based on a valid reason should be determined according to the nature of the work performed, whether the act occurred once or multiple times, whether work safety was endangered, or in other words, according to the specifics of the concrete case. It is observed that the defendant's witnesses declared that because the machines are very expensive, one must stand by the machine to operate it, otherwise it cannot be stopped and intervened with immediately, which could lead to serious financial damage, and that the CNC team leader decides which jobs require standing by the machine or whether it is possible to work on two machines simultaneously. The fact that the workers, despite having sufficient training, knowledge, and experience, left the machines under their control and supervision running during working hours and rested or slept in the tool shop for over an hour without informing anyone is of a nature that endangers work safety when evaluated together with the nature of the work they perform. There is no need for the worker to be warned or reminded about this matter before the termination of the employment contract, nor is it necessary for any specific damage to have occurred. For the reasons stated, it has been decided to resolve the dispute in line with the decisions of the 3rd and 9th Civil Chambers of the Regional Court of Justice, which stated that there was no impropriety in the First Instance Courts' decision to reject the claims for severance and notice pay on the grounds that the employment contract was terminated for just cause."

News Source: İHA