How Is Overtime Pay Calculated and Proven in Turkey? Employee Rights and Remedies

1. What counts as overtime?

• Normal working time is at most 45 hours a week, divided equally over the working days unless agreed otherwise (Labour Law art. 63).
• Overtime (fazla çalışma) is work beyond 45 hours a week (art. 41).
• Additional hours (fazla sürelerle çalışma): where the contract sets a working week below 45 hours (e.g. 40), work above that limit and up to 45 hours. It is paid at a different rate (see the table).
• Daily limit: weekly hours may be distributed differently, but no more than 11 hours a day (art. 63(2)).
• Annual cap: an employee's overtime may not exceed 270 hours a year (art. 41). The law contains no rule that hours above the cap go unpaid; art. 41 provides a premium for every overtime hour.

Averaging (denkleştirme)

If the parties agree, working hours can be distributed unevenly across weeks. Work above 45 hours in some weeks is then not overtime as long as the weekly average over a two-month period does not exceed 45 hours. A collective agreement can extend this to four months; in tourism the period is four months and a collective agreement can extend it to six (arts. 41(1) and 63(2)).

Time that counts as working time

Some periods count as working time even without actual work (art. 66 [1]), for example time waiting at the workplace ready to work, travel time when sent elsewhere by the employer, and time spent on other tasks assigned by the employer. Rest breaks do not count; an employee working more than 7.5 hours a day is entitled to at least one hour of break (art. 68 [1]).

2. Conditions and prohibitions

• Written consent of the employee is required, obtained at hiring or when the need arises and kept in the personnel file. The employee may withdraw it with 30 days' written notice. Consent is not required for overtime due to urgent reasons or emergencies (Overtime Regulation art. 9 [3]; Labour Law arts. 41–43).
• Overtime is prohibited for employees under 18, employees whose health does not permit it (doctor's report), pregnant, recently delivered and breastfeeding employees, and part-time employees (Regulation art. 8).
• Night work may not exceed 7.5 hours (art. 69 [1]), subject to statutory exceptions.

3. How is overtime pay calculated?

Source: Labour Law art. 41; Overtime Regulation arts. 4 and 6. These rates are statutory and do not change by year.

Steps:

1. Find the normal hourly wage. In a dispute, the calculation is usually made by a court-appointed expert.
2. Add up weekly working time from start and finish times, minus breaks.
3. Calculate the hours above 45 (or the averaging-period average, if averaging applies).
4. Periods under half an hour count as half an hour; over half an hour count as one hour (Regulation art. 5).
5. Deduct any overtime already shown as paid on the payslips.

Piece-rate and service-charge (percentage) workplaces have special rules (Regulation art. 4).

Time off instead of pay: only if the employee chooses it, by written application. The time off must be used within six months, on working days and without loss of pay (art. 41; Regulation art. 6).

Weekly rest day and public holiday work are separate claims calculated under different rules; for example, an employee who works on a public holiday receives an additional day's wage for that day (arts. 46 and 47 [1]).

4. How is overtime proven?

Main rule: the employee claiming overtime must prove it. The Court of Cassation (Yargıtay), 9th Civil Chamber, restated this rule and the payslip principles below in its decision of 15.10.2025, E. 2025/5983, K. 2025/7908 (decision text, published by Çalışma ve Toplum [4]).

Evidence that can be used:

• Workplace records: card or fingerprint entry-exit logs, shift schedules, timesheets.
• Correspondence: e-mails and work messages sent outside working hours, system logs, internal correspondence.
• Witnesses: people who worked at the same workplace at the same time and know the working pattern. Witnesses who do not or could not know the working pattern are given no weight.
• The nature of the work and ordinary life experience: in the same decision, for an employee found to work from 09:00 to 24:00, the court held that four hours of daily rest should be assumed.

Employer's documentation duty: the employer must keep a document showing overtime hours, with a signed copy in the personnel file, and overtime pay must be shown separately on payroll and pay slips (Regulation art. 10; Labour Law art. 37 [1]).

What does a signed payslip mean?

Equity reduction: in practice, where overtime is established only by witnesses, courts may reduce the calculated amount by a certain percentage to account for days not worked (hakkaniyet indirimi). This is not expressly regulated by statute; whether and how much depends on the case.

5. "Overtime is included in the salary" clauses

Some contracts state that overtime pay is included in the monthly salary. The validity and scope of such a clause are assessed separately in case law; it does not automatically mean that all overtime has been paid. If your contract contains such a clause, it is worth having your situation reviewed by a lawyer.

6. How far back can you claim?

• Five years. The limitation period for wage claims is five years (Labour Law art. 32 [1]; Code of Obligations art. 147 [5]). After it expires, the employer can refuse payment by raising limitation.
• Each month separately. Limitation runs from when the claim falls due (Code of Obligations art. 149 [5]). Overtime is paid with the normal wage (Regulation art. 10), so each month's overtime claim becomes time-barred separately.
• It runs during employment. Except for domestic workers, there is no rule suspending limitation while the employment continues (Code of Obligations art. 153).
• Mediation suspends it from the application until the final mediation report (Law No. 7036 art. 3(17)).

7. What can you do if overtime is not paid?

1. Mandatory mediation

For employee claims based on law or the employment contract, applying to a mediator before suing is a procedural precondition (Law No. 7036 art. 3 [2]). A mediator is a neutral professional who helps the parties reach an agreement but cannot decide the dispute.

• Where: the mediation office where the other party is domiciled or where the work was performed.
• How long: the mediator must conclude within three weeks of appointment, extendable by up to one week.
• Fees: if no agreement is reached, the two-hour fee is paid from the Ministry of Justice budget and any time beyond two hours is shared equally by the parties; if agreement is reached, fees are shared equally unless agreed otherwise.
• Not attending the first meeting without a valid excuse: that party bears half of the other side's court costs even if it wins, and only half of the attorney's fee is awarded in its favour (art. 3(12), as amended by Law No. 7531).
• Agreement: the parties cannot later sue over matters agreed (Law No. 6325 art. 18(5) [6]). Read carefully which claims the agreement covers before signing.
• No agreement: the mediator issues a final report, which must be attached to the claim. No separate deadline to sue applies, but limitation starts running again.

2. Labour court

• Court: the labour court; where none exists, the civil court of first instance (Law No. 7036 arts. 2 and 5).
• Place: where the employer is domiciled or where the work was performed; contrary agreements are void (art. 6).
• Amount uncertain — change from 31 July 2026: before that date, overtime claims were often filed as an "unquantified claim" (belirsiz alacak davası). Law No. 7589 of 16/7/2026 [7] (Official Gazette 31/7/2026, No. 33326) repealed that provision (Code of Civil Procedure art. 107) with effect from 31 July 2026. Under the new art. 109(4), in a partial claim the amount can be increased once, until the end of the evidence stage, and limitation is deemed interrupted from the filing date for the increased part too (Code of Civil Procedure [8]). Under provisional article 1(10) of Law No. 7589, the repealed art. 107 continues to apply to cases filed before 31 July 2026.
• Labour courts apply the simplified procedure (art. 7).

3. Termination for just cause

If wages are not calculated or paid in line with the law or the contract, the employee may terminate without notice (Labour Law art. 24(II)(e) [1]) and, if the other conditions are met, claim severance pay. Because the consequences are serious, the situation and evidence should be assessed before terminating.

An employee whose wage is not paid within 20 days of the payment date may also refuse to work (absent force majeure) without this being a ground for dismissal; late wages carry the highest deposit interest rate (art. 34 [1]).

8. Hypothetical example

This example is purely hypothetical; figures are chosen only to show the method. A works six days a week from 08:00 to 19:00 with a one-hour lunch break, with no averaging arrangement.

• Daily: 11 − 1 = 10 hours; weekly: 10 × 6 = 60 hours
• Weekly overtime: 60 − 45 = 15 hours
• Assumed normal gross hourly wage: TRY 200; overtime rate: 200 × 1.5 = TRY 300
• One week's overtime claim (gross): 15 × 300 = TRY 4,500

In a real dispute, leave, sick days and holidays, amounts already paid, limitation and any equity reduction are taken into account. A's annual overtime here would exceed the 270-hour cap; this is a breach by the employer, and the law contains no rule that hours above the cap go unpaid.

9. FAQ

Is overtime calculated gross or net?

The law defines overtime pay by reference to the normal hourly wage; tax and social security deductions are made on payment, and the pay statement must show overtime pay and each deduction separately (art. 37). Whether the claim is stated gross or net should be decided when the claim is prepared.

Can I claim overtime after leaving the job?

Yes. Termination does not extinguish the claim, but because the five-year limitation runs separately for each month, delay can reduce the months that can be claimed.

I work part-time. Can I be asked to work overtime?

Under the Regulation, part-time employees may not be required to work overtime or additional hours (art. 8). If you were, your entitlement for the hours worked should be assessed separately.

Do I have to complain to the labour inspectorate first?

No. The mandatory first step for collecting the claim is mediation. An administrative complaint does not replace mediation or a court case.