Short-Term Working Allowance
Short-Term Working Allowance
Short-term working is defined as temporal shortening of the employment period in the whole or part of the workplace by at least one-thirds or complete or partial suspension of operation for at least four weeks without the condition of continuation not longer than three months.
What are the Conditions of Requesting Short-Term Working?
An employer who reduces the working period by one-thirds or suspends the operation completely or partially for at least four weeks without any condition of continuation in the whole or part of the workplace makes a written notification to Turkish Employment Agency or the labor union that is party to the collective labor agreement, if any. The employees are also notified of this situation by announcement in workplace.
General Financial Crisis
Situations which arise in national or international economy and affect the economy, and thus, the businesses seriously.
Regional Crisis
Situations which cause the businesses operating in a certain province or region to be affected seriously in financial terms due to national or international events.
Sectorial Crisis
Situations in which the sectors directly affected from national and international economic crises, and other sectors related to directly-affected sectors are shocked seriously.
Forces Majeure
Causes such as earthquakes, fires, floods, epidemics, mobility, etc. which are not based on employer’s conducts, and which cannot be predicted and thus are impossible to avert, and result in temporary shortening of working time or complete or partial suspension of operations. (External causes such as the uprising in Libya, tsunami or earthquake in Japan are within the scope of this reason.)
Short-Term Working Request
The Employer prepares a Short-Term Working Request Form, and reports it to Turkish Employment Agency. Short-term working request of the employer is firstly evaluated by the Agency in terms of its reason and form.
In case of the presence of general economic, sectorial or regional crisis or a claim by employee or employer unions or strong signs in this respect, it is resolved by the Agency’s Board of Directors.
Applications that are found to be filed for reasons such as a general financial, sectorial, or regional crisis or cash insolvency, payment difficulties, market shrinkage or stock increase without taking above decisions and not in accordance with the forces majeure are rejected by the Agency.
Other processes regarding the determination of short employment application and conformity are determined by the Agency.
Notification of Employer’s Short-Term Working Result
Result of investigation is reported to the employer. The employer announces the result in the workplace that can be seen by the employees, and reports it to the labor union party to the collective labor agreement. In case of failure of announcement to employees, a written notification is made to the employees subject to short employment. An employer whose short employment request is approved updates and submits the Short-Term Working Notification List within the period determined by the Agency.
Conditions for Short-Term Working Allowance
In order for an employee to benefit from the short-term working allowance;
- Short-term working request of the employer should be approved by the Agency,
§ In accordance with the Article 50 of the law no. 4447, employees should be entitled to unemployment allowance in terms of their employment period and the amount of days of unemployment insurance payment by the date of the commencement of short employment (Of those who have paid premium for the last 120 days and constantly worked before the commencement of shor-term working, those who have paid unemployment insurance premium for at least 600 days in the last three years).
Amount of daily short-term working allowance is 60% of daily gross average earning calculated by taking into consideration the earnings of the insurant for the last twelve months subject to premium, not exceeding 150% of the gross amount of monthly minimum wage for those older than 16 years of age in accordance with the article 39 of the Labor Law no. 4857 dated 22/5/2003. Short-term working allowance is paid in accordance with the article 50 of the law no. 4447 as long as not violating the Supplementary article 2 of the same Law.
Period of short-term working allowance is as long as the short-term working period not more than 3 months.
Short-term working allowance is calculated monthly for periods of unemployment as covering the weekly working time in a workplace.
Short-term working allowance is paid over the de-facto duration of short-term working on the condition that it shall not exceed the time specified in the assessment of conformity in accordance with the effects of economic developments on the operations of the workplace.
In case of short-term working in the workplace due to forces majeure, payments begin after the one-week period provided in the item (III) of the article 24, and in the article 40 of the Law no. 4857.
If an employee who benefits from the short-term working allowance is made redundant without the conditions provided in the article 50 of the Law no. 4447 being realized, they benefit from the unemployment allowance until they complete the period of the unemployment allowance they were formerly entitled to, after the deduction of short-term working allowance.
Short-term working allowance is paid to the employee as a wage at the end of each month.
Short-term working allowance cannot be transferred or assigned to another person apart except subsistence debts.
Overpayments made due to false information or document of are collected with their legal rate of interest from the employer in case of employer’s fault, and from the employee in case of employee’s fault.
Payment of General Health Insurance Premiums
The insurance contribution to be paid for the period that the employee received short-term working allowance in accordance with the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Act no. 5510 dated 31/5/2006 is transferred to the Social Security Institution by Unemployment Insurance Fund. These contributions are calculated over the minimum earning limit based on for the calculation of insurance contributions. Short- and long-term insurance contributions are not transferred in the said term.
Suspension of Short-Term Working Allowance
If, in workplaces where short-term working practice continues, the employer is found to submit false information or documents about the working time of the employees who receive short-term working allowance and in case of written request of Agency’s inspectors, short-term working allowance is suspended with the number of misinformed employees taken into consideration.
Cancellation of Short-Term Working Allowance
If the receiver of the allowance is recruited, starts to get old-age pension, drafted to army for any reason, leave job for any duty arising from a law or starts to receive incapacity pension, short employment allowance is cancelled by the date of the health certificate subject to the incapacity pension.
Record Keeping Obligation of Employer
The employer of short-term working is obliged to keep records of employees regarding their working time and present them when requested.
Early End of Short-Term Working
If the employer decides to return to normal operation before the announced time, they are obliged to report this situation in written to Agency’s unit, to the labor union party to the collective labor agreement, if any, and to workers six workdays before the ending time. Short-term working ends by the date stated in this notification. Improper payments arising from late notification are collected from the employer with the rate of interest.