An Employee's Right to Terminate an Employment Contract for Just Cause in Turkey

If your employer in Turkey has broken the deal, you can resign instantly, with no notice, and still keep your severance pay. Turkish labour law calls this terminating for just cause, and Article 24 of Labour Law No. 4857 sets out exactly when you can do it. This guide explains how the right works, how to quit without losing your severance, and what foreign professionals in particular need to watch. Current as of 2026.

What "Just Cause" Termination Means

Just-cause termination is your right to end the employment relationship instantly and without serving a notice period when the employer is at fault. It is one of the cornerstones of Turkish labour law and is governed by Article 24 of Labour Law No. 4857 (İş Kanunu). The right exists for both indefinite-term and fixed-term contracts and applies no matter how long you have worked.

The logic is fairness. When the employer's conduct, or the circumstances at the workplace, make it unreasonable to expect you to keep working, the law lets you walk away on the spot. This is very different from an ordinary resignation. With an ordinary resignation you must give statutory notice (or pay in lieu) under Article 17 and you usually lose your severance; with just-cause termination the contract ends the moment you give valid notice, and your severance is protected.

Just cause is about why the contract ends, not about leaving quietly. Whether you keep your severance and other entitlements often turns on documenting the cause correctly, so the facts should be reviewed before you act. For background on where the rules are heading, see our note on recent changes in Turkish employment law.

The Three Categories Under Article 24

Article 24 groups an employee's just causes into three heads. At least one must genuinely apply to your situation.

I. Health Reasons

You may terminate immediately where:

• The nature of the work creates a danger to your health or life that was not foreseeable when you started; or
• The employer, a household member of the employer, or another colleague you are in constant close contact with has a contagious disease, or a disease incompatible with your work.

II. Situations Contradicting Morality and Good Faith

This is the most frequently used category by far. It covers, among others:

• The employer misleading you about an essential term of the contract — for example, false statements about pay, position, or working conditions;
• Verbal or physical abuse, insults, or sexual harassment by the employer or a colleague, or the employer failing to act after harassment is reported;
• Mobbing (systematic psychological harassment), which Turkish courts now read into this head and also tie to the employer's duty to protect the employee under Article 417 of the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098;
• The employer committing a crime against you or a family member, or making serious, unfounded accusations that damage your honour;
• Non-payment or late payment of wages, or paying less than agreed — one of the most common grounds in practice;
• The employer not applying the agreed working conditions, not providing work where pay depends on output, or unilaterally cutting agreed wages or working conditions.

III. Compelling (Force-Majeure) Reasons

Where a compelling reason stops the work for more than one week — for example an event that shuts the workplace down — you may terminate for just cause.

Unpaid Wages: The Most Common Ground

In day-to-day practice, the single most common just cause is non-payment or persistent late payment of wages, which falls under Article 24/II. Turkish courts have long held that an employer who does not pay wages on time breaches a core obligation, entitling the employee to terminate instantly. This remains the settled position of the Court of Cassation's 9th Civil Chamber (the labour chamber) in its current 2026 decisions.

Article 34 of Law No. 4857 reinforces this: if wages are not paid within twenty days of the due date (absent force majeure), you may refrain from working — and the delay carries the highest bank deposit interest rate on the overdue amount. Refraining from work on this basis is not abandonment of the job and cannot itself be used against you.

One important nuance: although the employee normally proves the just cause, when the dispute is about unpaid wages the burden of proving that wages were paid sits with the employer. This is a settled Court of Cassation rule and a real advantage in the most common scenario.

What You Are Entitled To After Just-Cause Termination

Terminating for a valid just cause does not strip you of your money — it protects it. An employee who lawfully resigns for just cause under Article 24 generally remains entitled to:

• Severance pay (kıdem tazminatı) — provided you have completed at least one year of service. This is the key advantage: an ordinary resignation without just cause normally forfeits severance.
• Unpaid wages, overtime, and unused annual leave accrued up to the termination date.
• Other accrued contractual entitlements such as bonuses or premiums.

How severance is calculated. As a rule of thumb it is 30 days' gross wage for each completed year of service, pro-rated for partial years, and it includes regular, recurring pay elements (for example regular bonuses, and the money value of any board or lodging), not just base salary. But there is a ceiling: severance per year is capped by the kıdem tazminatı tavanı, which the Treasury resets every six months, in January and July. Because the cap changes twice a year, the figure you saw last year may already be out of date — see how the 2025-2026 severance ceiling is calculated before you rely on any number.

Note that notice pay (ihbar tazminatı) is not owed by you when you terminate under Article 24, because just-cause termination is immediate and notice-free by definition. Notice pay only arises with ordinary, notice-based termination under Article 17.

Just-Cause Resignation vs Ordinary Resignation vs Dismissal

Foreign employees often confuse three very different exits. This table captures the practical differences and is the quickest way to see where you stand.

A separate point worth clearing up: because just-cause termination is you leaving, it is not an unfair dismissal. There is no reinstatement claim (işe iade) — reinstatement only exists where the employer ends the contract without valid reason. If you are unsure which situation you are in, that distinction changes your whole strategy.

The Six-Working-Day Time Limit

One of the most overlooked rules is the strict deadline in Article 26 of Law No. 4857. The right to terminate for a morality/good-faith cause (category II) must be exercised within six working days of the day you learn of the fact giving rise to it — and in any event within one year of the event itself. The one-year cap does not apply where the employer gained a financial benefit from the act.

Note that this six-working-day clock attaches to category II (morality/good faith). It does not govern category I health grounds or category III force-majeure grounds, which follow their own logic.

How to Exercise the Right Correctly

There is no rigid statutory form, but doing it properly is what protects your claim:

1. Confirm a valid ground exists under Article 24 and that it is not stale under the Article 26 deadline. If you have any doubt about your contract or a cross-border pay arrangement, it is worth having an employment lawyer review your employment contract first.
2. Put it in writing. State clearly that you are terminating for just cause and identify the legal ground (for example, unpaid wages under Article 24/II).
3. Use a notary (noter) notice where possible, so both delivery and content are provable.
4. Preserve evidence — payslips, messages, bank statements, witness details, and any HR correspondence.
5. Pursue unpaid entitlements. If the employer refuses to pay severance and accrued amounts, the claim proceeds through compulsory mediation and, if needed, the labour courts.

A worked example: salary 25 days late

Say your March salary was due on 1 April and by 26 April it still has not arrived. Because more than 20 days have passed, Article 34 already lets you stop working. Non-payment is also a just cause under Article 24/II. The clean route is: send a noter notice demanding payment and stating that, failing payment, you terminate for just cause due to unpaid wages; keep your bank statements showing no deposit; and act within the Article 26 window once the cause is clear. You can then claim your unpaid wages, the highest deposit interest on them, your severance (if you have one year's service), and accrued leave and overtime.

Foreign Employees: What Happens to Your Work and Residence Permit

For foreign professionals, ending the job affects more than your pay — it touches your right to stay in Turkey. The protections of Labour Law No. 4857 apply to everyone working in Turkey regardless of nationality, but the immigration layer is separate.

• Your work permit is tied to that employer. A Turkish work permit (çalışma izni) under Law No. 6735 is employer-specific. When the employment ends, the employer must notify the Ministry, and the permit is cancelled — typically within a short window of the termination. After that you are no longer authorised to work for that employer.
• Residence does not automatically continue. A work permit also serves as your residence basis, so once it is cancelled you usually need another lawful ground to remain — for example a new work permit with a new employer, or a residence permit under Law No. 6458. Do not assume you can simply stay and look for work.
• Plan the timing. Because the permit and your right to remain can fall away quickly, the safest course for a foreign employee is to take advice before resigning, so the labour claim and your immigration status are managed together.

Disputes, Mediation, and the Labour Courts

If the employer disputes the just cause or refuses to pay, the matter goes through Turkey's labour dispute system. Most monetary and reinstatement labour claims must first go through compulsory mediation as a precondition to suit; only if mediation fails does the claim move to the labour courts.

How mediation works in practice. You apply through the mediation office at the courthouse (adliye arabuluculuk bürosu); it is free to start; a mediator is assigned and the process usually wraps up within a few weeks. If you reach an agreement, the signed settlement is enforceable like a court judgment — you can take it straight to enforcement if the employer does not pay. A well-documented file frequently settles at this stage without a full trial. For how the trial works if it does not settle, see how Turkish labour courts handle these claims.

To talk through your situation, you can speak to our English-speaking employment team.

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