İSTİFA EDEN İŞÇİ KIDEM TAZMİNATI ALABİLİR Mİ? Avukat Ezgi Esnik Günay

WHAT IS SEVERANCE PAY? SEVERANCE PAY is the compensation paid to an employee who is dismissed by their employer or is forced to leave their job for just cause, provided they have worked for more than one year at the workplace. If the employee is unfairly dismissed or leaves their job for just cause, they must be paid severance pay equal to one gross salary for each year of employment. Is severance pay paid to a resigning employee? CAN A RESIGNING EMPLOYEE RECEIVE SEVERANCE PAY? A resigning employee must be very careful in their termination notice to the employer and accurately explain their intention to leave. First, a distinction must be made between resignation and just cause termination. If an employee intending to leave their job has a just cause, they should never submit a resignation letter and should never include the word "resignation" in the written notice. This is because the employee will not receive severance pay. A resigning employee can only claim severance pay if they have justifiable reasons for termination. If the employee has unpaid wages and overtime due, or if they are subjected to bullying, they will have justifiable reasons for leaving. In such cases, if the employee submits a written notice of termination to the employer, they must state in their letter that they are leaving for justifiable reasons. The employee is not required to provide written notice when leaving; they can also effectively terminate their employment contract. If the employee claims they are leaving for justifiable reasons, they must remember that they have the burden of proof. For example, an employee claiming unpaid overtime must prove they are owed overtime through witness testimony. THESE REASONS MUST BE INCLUDED IN THE PETITION TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE EMPLOYER IF THERE ARE JUSTIFIABLE REASONS FOR RESIGNATION If the employee resigns without specifying a reason in their letter to the employer, they will no longer be eligible to claim severance pay. Furthermore, if the employee states that they are resigning after listing the justifiable reasons for termination, it must be accepted that the employee terminated their employment contract for justifiable reasons. For example, if an employee who wishes to leave their job writes, "I am resigning because my overtime or salary has not been paid, and I request severance pay," then the employee must be accepted as having justifiable reasons. However, if the employee simply writes, "I am resigning," without specifying any reason, the Supreme Court of Appeals has stated, "The right to immediate termination is a right that creates new grounds for cause. Therefore, the reason specified in the termination notice cannot, as a rule, be changed, expanded, or added to by another reason." This will result in the employee experiencing difficulties in obtaining their severance pay. RESIGNATION LETTERS OBTAINED UNDER PRESSURE ARE INVALID. Employers may obtain resignation letters under pressure from employees who wish to leave their job or who were dismissed by their employer despite not intending to leave. A resignation letter obtained from an employee under duress is invalid, but the employee must prove in court that they were pressured and submitted their resignation for this reason. The employee can prove this through witness testimony. Witnesses the employee wishes to have heard in court regarding this matter must provide eyewitness testimony; that is, they must be able to describe what they saw, not what they heard. MEDIATION REPORTS ARE REQUIRED DURING EMPLOYMENT, AND EMPLOYEES SHOULD BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT THIS Mediation is now mandatory in cases between employees and employers, and unfortunately, despite employees receiving no or very low benefits, mediation reports are still being required to be signed after leaving work. Although it is possible to request the annulment of these reports, which were made to be signed by the workers by deceiving and misleading them without any explanation, in the court, this process causes the cases to be prolonged and causes difficulties in proving, so the workers who left the job should be very careful and not sign any documents without reading and understanding them.