With the Law No. 7553 on the "Amendment of Certain Laws and Decree Law No. 375" published in the Official Gazette on July 14, 2025, important innovations have been introduced in the Labor Law and some other laws. In this context; as of 14.07.2025, with the provision added to the article Article 46 of the Labor Law which regulates the week holiday, flexible week holiday specific to the tourism sector have been introduced.
Pre-change status;
Prior to the amendment, it was obligatory to give employees at
least 24 hours of uninterrupted week holiday every 7 days,
regardless of any sector, job or workplace. In the Labor law, it is
stated that the employee will receive the full wage of that week
holiday without being compensated for the work. However, although
it is not clearly regulated in the law how the employee working on
the week holiday will be paid, the gap in this area has been filled
by judicial decisions, and in accordance with the precedent
decisions, the employee working on the week holiday should be paid
an additional 1 day's wage for working, in addition to the
1-day wage she/he will be entitled to even if he does not work. In
addition, since the employee has completed the agreed working time
of the relevant week before the week holiday, it is accepted that
the wage of the work on the week holiyday should be paid to the
employee with a 50% increase, since this work on the week holiday
will also be overtime.
New Regulation;
With Article 9 of Law No. 7553, published in the Official Gazette on July 14, 2025, the following provision has been added to Article 46 of the Labor Law:
"However, the week holiday earned by the employees
working in accommodation facilities for which a tourism operation
certificate has been issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism
are entitled within the scope of this paragraph, can be used within
four days following the day on which the employee is entitled, with
the written request or approval of the employee. In this case, the
part of the work done by the employee on the weekly holiday to
which she/he is entitled, up to the normal working time per day,
shall not be taken into account in the calculation of overtime. The
employee may withdraw his/her consent by notifying the employer in
writing thirty days in advance."
What does this mean?
First of all, it is clearly stated in the article that the new
regulation will be valid for employees working in accommodation
facilities that have received an operating license from the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and it is seen that the flexible
weekend application is limited to the tourism sector. In addition,
with the change;
- For the employees working in the relevant workplaces, it has become possible to use these rights within 4 days following when they are entitled a weekly holiday, and thus to work continuously for up to 10 days.
- For the flexible weekly holiday, the employee must give a written request or approval. In other words, it is not possible for the employer to unilaterally apply the flexible weekly holiday.
- Employees have been given the opportunity to withdraw their consent by notifying them in writing thirty days in advance. This regulation of the article means that once approval is given, this approval will be valid for the entire working period, in other words, it is not necessary to obtain separate approval for each week holiday.
- It is clearly stated that when the employee who works in the
relevant workplaces and approves the flexible weekly holiday, works
on the weekly holiday, only the hours of this work exceeding the
daily working time will be considered as overtime. For example, if
an employee with a daily working time of 7.5 hours works 9 hours on
the weekly holiday only 1.5 hours of this work will be taken into
account in the overtime calculation.
Another amendment related to the Labor Law introduced by Law No. 7553, published on July 14, 2025, concerns administrative fines. In this context, prior to the amendment, administrative fines were imposed by the Regional Directorates of Labor and Social Security, except for certain exceptions. However, it is now regulated that all types of administrative fines will be imposed by the Provincial Directorates of the Labor and Employment Agency.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
