Question
If I resign of my own accord, can I claim notice pay? If I leave without observing the notice period, do I owe the employer compensation?
Short answer: If you resign of your own accord, you cannot claim notice pay. This compensation is paid by the party that terminates the contract to the other party, and the terminating party cannot claim it even if the termination was justified . If you leave without observing the notice period and without a just cause, you are in principle liable to pay notice compensation to the employer . The decisions provided contain no concrete example of an employee being ordered to pay this compensation to the employer.
Reasoning
- Definition of the compensation: Notice pay is the compensation that the party terminating an indefinite-term employment contract without just cause and without granting the proper notice period must pay to the other party . Even where there is a just cause for termination, a party that terminates after the forfeiture period in Article 26 has expired is also liable to pay notice compensation .
- If the employee is the terminating party: The Court of Cassation has not awarded notice pay even to employees who terminated for just cause (such as unpaid wages or a change of duties) . Once it was established that the claimant was the terminating party, the severance pay award was upheld and the notice pay claim was rejected . In terminations for reasons such as retirement, military service or marriage, neither the employee nor the employer can claim notice pay .
- Whether the resignation really came from the employee: The burden of proving that the employment contract ended in a way that does not give rise to compensation lies with the employer. In one decision, because it was argued that the resignation letter was a pre-printed form, stated no reason and took advantage of the employee's lack of knowledge, the employer could not prove this, and notice pay had to be awarded . By contrast, in another case where witness statements showed that the employee was the terminating party, notice pay was rejected . These two decisions do not conflict. The outcome depends on proof of who terminated the contract.
Translated from Turkish. Sources are quoted in the original Turkish.
The AI called these tools (2)
- 1.
search(query: "işçinin istifası ihbar tazminatı İş Kanunu 17. madde ihbar süresine uymadan fesih işverene tazminat", sources: ["yargitay"], limit: 8) - 2.
ask(question: "Kendi isteğimle istifa edersem ihbar tazminatı alabilir miyim? İhbar süresine uymadan ayrılırsam işverene tazminat öder miyim?")