The conditions for a reinstatement claim (işe iade davası) are set out in Articles 18-21 of Labour Act no. 4857 and in Labour Courts Act no. 7036. In order for an employee to be able to seek reinstatement, at least 30 employees must work at the workplace, the employee must have at least 6 months’ length of service, and the employee must be working under an indefinite-term employment contract. In this article we examine the conditions for a reinstatement claim, the mandatory mediation (zorunlu arabuluculuk) process, how the procedure works step by step, and the preclusive periods (hak düşürücü süre), in accordance with the legislation currently in force.
- In order to bring a reinstatement claim, 30 or more employees must work at the workplace and the employee must have 6 months’ length of service (Labour Act m.18).
- The notice of termination must be given in writing and the valid reason must be stated expressly; otherwise the termination may be treated as invalid.
- Before bringing the claim, an application to mandatory mediation is required (Act no. 7036 m.3); the mediator concludes the application within 3 weeks, and this period may be extended by 1 week where necessary.
- If no settlement is reached in mediation, the claim must be brought within 2 weeks of the final minutes; this period is preclusive.
- The court or the mediator sets the compensation payable where the employer does not reinstate the employee at between 4 and 8 months’ wages.
What Are the Conditions for Bringing a Reinstatement Claim?
Three basic conditions are required in order to bring a reinstatement claim: that 30 or more employees are employed at the workplace, that the employee has at least 6 months’ length of service at a workplace belonging to the same employer, and that the employment contract is of indefinite term (Labour Act no. 4857 m.18, mevzuat.gov.tr). If one of these conditions is missing, the employee may turn not to invalid termination but to other routes, such as bad-faith compensation or compensation in lieu of notice.
The employer’s representative (işveren vekili) takes as the basis the total number of employees working across the undertaking as a whole; if the same employer has more than one workplace, the numbers are added together. It should not be forgotten that the 30-employee threshold is assessed according to the actual number of employees on the date of termination.
For example, if an employer has three separate branches in different districts and the total number of employees at those branches reaches 30, the employees at a particular branch may benefit from reinstatement protection even if only 10 people are employed at that branch. For this reason, in calculating the number of employees, regard must be had not only to the branch where the employee works but to all of the employer’s workplaces in the relevant branch of activity.
What Does a Termination Made Without a Valid Reason Mean?
The employer may not terminate an indefinite-term contract unless there is a valid reason arising from the employee’s capability, from the employee’s conduct, or from the requirements of the undertaking; the notice of termination must be given in writing and the ground must be stated expressly. Terminations made without a ground, or in abstract terms, carry the risk of being treated as invalid by the court.
The employer bears the burden of proving that the termination rests on a valid reason; the employee, on the other hand, must prove any allegation that the termination rests on some other reason. This sharing of the burden of proof increases the importance of gathering evidence during the proceedings.
Reasons Arising from the Employee’s Capability
This category covers cases of the employee’s lack of professional knowledge, poor performance, or inability to carry out the work as required; for the employer to be able to rely on this reason, prior written warnings and performance-assessment records are generally expected to exist. A single negative assessment may not on its own be sufficient to prove a lack of capability.
Reasons Arising from the Employee’s Conduct
Conduct such as failing to comply with workplace discipline, repeatedly breaching the employer’s instructions, or being in constant conflict with colleagues falls within this category; however, such conduct must not be of the gravity covered by Article 25/II, otherwise the position is one not of valid termination but of just-cause termination. In termination based on conduct as well, taking the employee’s statement in advance is an important procedural safeguard for the validity of the termination.
Reasons Arising from the Requirements of the Undertaking, the Workplace or the Work
This category covers the disappearance of the position for economic, technological or structural reasons connected with the workplace, independently of the employee’s person; if the employer has gone straight to termination while it was possible to move the employee to the same or a similar position, this gives rise to a risk of invalid termination. In this category the courts examine whether the employer has genuinely experienced a surplus of staff.
How Does the Mandatory Mediation Process Work?
Under Article 3 of Labour Courts Act no. 7036, an application to a mediator before bringing a claim seeking reinstatement is a condition of the action; a claim brought without applying to a mediator is dismissed on procedural grounds without the merits being examined. The employee must apply to a mediator within 1 month of service of the notice of termination (Türkiye Barolar Birliği (the Union of Turkish Bar Associations), barobirlik.org.tr). You may also look at our separate article on the scope of mandatory mediation as a condition of action in commercial disputes.
In mediation that is a condition of action, the fee relating to the first session is met from the budget of the Ministry of Justice; if no settlement is reached, or if the process lasts more than one session, the fee relating to the subsequent sessions is shared equally between the parties. The mediator holds a meeting with the participation of the parties and of their attorneys, if any; although the employee is required to attend in person, representation by an attorney is also possible.
| Stage | Period | Nature |
|---|---|---|
| Application to the mediator | 1 month from service of the termination | Preclusive |
| Mediation meetings | 3 weeks from appointment (extendable by 1 week) | Statutory maximum period |
| Bringing the claim | 2 weeks from the final minutes | Preclusive |
| Employee’s application to the employer | 10 working days from the judgment becoming final and being served | Preclusive |
| Employer’s reinstatement of the employee | 1 month from the employee’s application | Statutory maximum period |
The Steps of the Reinstatement Process
From the notice of termination through to the final outcome, the reinstatement process consists of six steps that must be followed in order; a failure to take any one of these steps in the proper form and within time may cause the process to break down from the outset.
1. Service of the Notice of Termination
The employer is obliged to notify the reason for termination clearly and in writing; the date of service is the starting point for all subsequent periods, and it is important to keep the service envelope or the record of delivery by hand.
2. Application to the Mediator
The employee starts the process by applying within 1 month of service to the mediation office of the competent courthouse; the application must state expressly that the claim is one for reinstatement.
3. Mediation Meetings
The appointed mediator seeks a settlement by holding meetings with the parties separately or together; at this stage the employee and the employer may freely agree on matters such as reinstatement and the amount of compensation.
4. Drawing Up of the Final Minutes
If no settlement is reached, the mediator draws up the final minutes recording the disagreement; the date of those minutes determines the start of the period for bringing the claim.
5. Bringing the Claim and the Proceedings
The employee brings the claim before the labour court within 2 weeks of the final minutes; during the proceedings the validity of the termination is argued through the submission of witnesses, minutes and written documents.
6. The Judgment Becoming Final and the Application for Reinstatement
Once the judgment has become final, the employee must apply to the employer within 10 working days requesting to be taken back into work; omitting this step may extinguish the right to benefit from the consequences of reinstatement.
What Happens If the Court Orders Reinstatement?
Where the court or the mediator decides in favour of reinstatement, the employee is obliged to apply to the employer within 10 working days of being served with notice that the judgment has become final, requesting to be taken back into work. The employer is obliged to take the employee back into work within 1 month following the application; if it does not do so, it becomes liable to pay the previously determined compensation for failure to reinstate.
Compensation for failure to reinstate is set at an amount equal to not less than 4 and not more than 8 months’ wages, according to the employee’s length of service; in addition, the employee is paid wages and other entitlements for up to 4 months for the period spent idle. If the employee does not apply within time, the termination is treated as valid and compensation for failure to reinstate cannot be claimed. To keep track of the critical dates in the process, you may use our reinstatement period calculator. Even where the case is won, the question of who bears the attorney’s fee payable to the other side is a matter of frequent curiosity; detailed information is available in our separate article.
How Long Does a Reinstatement Claim Take in 2026?
Reinstatement claims are among those which, under the Labour Courts Act, are intended to be concluded in the shortest possible time, in a manner close to an expedited procedure; however, depending on the court’s workload, first-instance proceedings may vary on average between a few months and a year. Appellate (istinaf) review of the judgment is conducted as a final review, and the appeal process may add a further few months.
A lengthening of the process does not create a financial risk for the employee, since if the court orders reinstatement the wages for the period spent idle are paid separately. However, as the length of the process may affect the employee’s decision on whether to consider other employment opportunities, it is important that the application be made in time and with complete documentation.
Which Employees Cannot Bring a Reinstatement Claim?
If fewer than 30 employees are employed at the workplace, if the employee’s length of service is less than 6 months, if the person is a senior manager holding the position of employer’s representative, or if the person works under a fixed-term employment contract, no right to bring a reinstatement claim arises. Such persons may, if the conditions are met, raise their other claims, such as bad-faith compensation or compensation in lieu of notice and severance pay.
For employees falling outside the scope as well, the procedural propriety of the notice of termination may be assessed separately; indeed, every termination made on an invalid ground may affect claims for compensation other than reinstatement. In such situations, for details of the cases in which severance pay is not paid you may look at our separate article, and for our relevant area of practice at our employment law page.
The concept of the employer’s representative is defined in the final paragraph of Article 18 of the Labour Act as covering persons who direct and manage the undertaking as a whole and who have the power to recruit and dismiss employees; a branch manager or departmental manager who manages only a particular section may not fall within that scope. Whether an employee is genuinely to be treated as an employer’s representative is assessed according to the powers actually exercised, independently of the job title. Current decisions of the Yargıtay (the Court of Cassation) on the subject can be accessed through the Yargıtay decision search system.
Who Bears the Burden of Proof in a Reinstatement Claim?
In a reinstatement claim the burden of proof lies, as a rule, with the employer who gave the notice of termination; the employer must show by concrete evidence that the termination rested on a valid reason. Reasons such as poor performance, conduct or the requirements of the undertaking must be supported not by abstract statements but by concrete records, such as minutes, written warnings and documents recording the taking of the employee’s statement.
The employee, for their part, must prove any allegation that the termination rested on a reason other than the one notified (for example trade-union activity or discrimination). This allocation of the burden of proof is the basic rule determining which party must gather which documents in preparing the case file.
How Are Wages and Social Security Premiums Calculated After Reinstatement?
An employee in whose favour reinstatement has been ordered and who applies to the employer within time is paid the wages and other entitlements accrued for up to 4 months in respect of the period during which they were not employed until the judgment became final; the social security premiums for that period are also paid by the employer. This payment is a right safeguarded by law even though the employee did not actually work.
If the employee is taken back into work, their length of service also continues to be calculated with this period added, together with the wages for the period spent idle. If the employer does not take the employee back into work, compensation for failure to reinstate is paid separately in addition to the wages for the period spent idle. For the differences between the statutory interest, default interest and advance interest to be applied to employment receivables paid late, you may look at our article comparing the rates.
What Should Be Considered Before Bringing a Reinstatement Claim?
Keeping a copy of documents such as the date of service of the notice of termination, the ground for dismissal and any letter requesting the employee’s statement provides the evidence most frequently needed in the mediation and court process. Whether the employee received performance assessments or written warnings before the termination also plays an important role in the argument over the valid reason.
Not missing the 1-month period for applying to mediation is the most critical stage of the process; for that reason it is advisable for an employee who has received a notice of termination to contact an attorney or the mediation office directly without losing time. Managing the process correctly prevents both the reinstatement claim and any compensation claims from being dismissed on procedural grounds.
Does the Right to Reinstatement Continue in Collective Dismissals?
Under Article 29 of the Labour Act, where an employer is to dismiss a specified number of employees collectively within one month, it must notify this in writing at least 30 days in advance to the trade-union representatives at the workplace concerned, to Türkiye İş Kurumu (the Turkish Employment Agency) and to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. This notification obligation does not remove the conditions for reinstatement; employees covered by a collective dismissal may also bring a reinstatement claim if they meet the other conditions.
A failure to comply with the notification procedure in a collective dismissal may be treated as a separate procedural defect strengthening an allegation that the termination is invalid. For that reason it may be useful for employees dismissed as part of a collective dismissal also to raise separately in the statement of claim the question whether the notification process was conducted in the proper form.
How Does the Reinstatement Process Affect Other Employment Receivables?
Applying to mediation with a claim for reinstatement does not prevent the employee from also claiming their other receivables, such as severance pay, compensation in lieu of notice and pay for unused annual leave; these receivables are generally claimed together in the same mediation application. However, since reinstatement and other employment receivables have different legal bases, the claims must be set out separately and clearly in the statement of claim.
If an employee who is receiving unemployment benefit wins a reinstatement claim and starts work, the benefit is stopped from the date of starting work; where the employer does not take the employee back into work, the unemployment benefit and the compensation for failure to reinstate may need to be assessed together. At this point it is financially important for the employee to keep their notifications to İŞKUR up to date and to follow the process.
The fact that each stage from the beginning to the end of the process is tied to a separate period and burden of proof makes reinstatement claims one of the technically most sensitive types of case in employment law. Documenting in full the date of service of the notice of termination, the date of the mediation application and, where applicable, the date of the final minutes is the most effective protection against objections as to time that may arise at any stage of the process.
What Will the Other Side Do?
In a dispute it is not enough to know only that you are in the right; the other side also has a defence strategy of its own, and being prepared for that strategy in advance largely determines how the process will unfold. The defences below are typical objections frequently encountered in files of this kind; which of them will arise in your own file depends on the documents you hold and on the course of events.
The termination rests on a valid reason (performance, conduct or the requirements of the undertaking).
The employer proves the valid reason through performance-assessment records, minutes or an organisational chart. The employee, in turn, responds with documents showing that the same practice was not applied to comparable employees. Whether the performance assessment was notified in advance is also taken into account by the court.
Fewer than thirty employees work at the workplace, so the case falls outside the scope of job security.
The SGK workplace declaration and the periodic employee-number records are examined to establish whether the scope condition is met. Whether more than one workplace belongs to the same employer may also affect the total number of employees.
The employee does not meet the six-month length-of-service condition.
The length of service is clarified through the employment entry declaration and the service record; interrupted periods are assessed separately. Periods spent at different workplaces belonging to the same employer may also be included in the calculation of length of service.
The mediation application was not made within time.
The date of service of the notice of termination is compared with the date of the application to the mediator in order to establish whether the one-month period has run. Since an application not made within time may result in the claim being dismissed on procedural grounds, these dates must be documented correctly.
Which of these defences will come to the fore varies according to the specific circumstances of the file, the documents you hold and the order in which events occurred. In some files the other side concentrates on a single defence, while in others several objections are seen to be raised together. For that reason, gathering the evidence that will neutralise a possible defence in advance, before moving on to the litigation or enforcement stage, directly affects the course of the process. To assess in advance which defence your file will meet, you may get in touch.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many months does a reinstatement claim take?
No definite period can be foreseen; first-instance proceedings may take from a few months up to a year depending on the workload and the state of the evidence, and appellate review is added to that period.
What happens if a claim is brought without applying to mediation?
The claim is dismissed on procedural grounds for want of a condition of action; the employee must additionally apply to a mediator and complete the process.
How much compensation does the employer pay if it does not reinstate the employee?
Compensation for failure to reinstate equal to not less than 4 and not more than 8 months’ wages, according to the employee’s length of service, is paid together with wages for the period spent idle of up to 4 months.
How is the figure of 30 employees calculated?
The total number of employees at that workplace of the same employer and, where applicable, at its other workplaces in the same branch of activity is taken as the basis, as at the date of termination.
Can an employee working under a fixed-term contract bring a reinstatement claim?
No; reinstatement protection is provided only for employees working under an indefinite-term employment contract.
Is there any remedy if the period for bringing the claim is missed?
The 2-week period for bringing the claim is preclusive; as a rule there is no remedy, and for that reason keeping track of the date of the final minutes is critically important.
If a reinstatement claim is won, are social security premiums paid retrospectively?
Yes; the social security premiums relating to the wages of up to 4 months for the period spent idle paid to the employee are also paid by the employer to Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu (the Social Security Institution).
Is a notice of termination given orally valid?
No; under Article 19 of the Labour Act the employer must effect the termination in writing and state the valid reason expressly, and oral terminations or terminations without a stated ground carry the risk of being treated as invalid by the court.
Table of Periods
| Period | How long | Starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Application to mediation | 1 month | From service of the notice of termination |
| Bringing the reinstatement claim | 2 weeks | From the drawing up of the final mediation minutes |
| Application requesting reinstatement | 10 working days | From service of notice that the judgment has become final |
Sources
- Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (the Legislation Information System, mevzuat.gov.tr)
- Türkiye Barolar Birliği (the Union of Turkish Bar Associations)
- Yargıtay Decision Search System
- Ministry of Labour and Social Security
Related Articles
- Mandatory Mediation in Commercial Cases: Scope, Periods, Final Minutes
- Who Pays the Other Side’s Attorney’s Fee? (2026 AAÜT Guide)
- In Which Cases Is Severance Pay Not Payable? (2026)
- Statutory Interest, Default Interest and Advance Interest: The Differences
- Steps That Prevent Loss of Rights After a Workplace Accident
This article is for general information purposes and does not take the place of legal advice. Your particular situation requires a separate assessment of your own file.
This article was prepared on the basis of the legislation in force as at 17.09.2026.
Av. Mehmet İlker Dinç
Insurance Law, Compensation Law, Employment Law, Corporate Law, Corporate Advisory
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