ABSTRACT

Until 2020 The Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals’ case law has stated it is not possible for a worker to be entitled to a paid weekly rest day (paid weekend) in a part-time employment relationship since the weekly working time for a part-time worker did not reach forty-five hours (the statutory maximum weekly working time in accordance with the Turkish Labour Act). However, late two decisions in December 2020 and September 2021 have raised the question of whether the case-law on this issue has been amended. In these two cases where the weekly working time was much less than forty-five hours, the Court of Appeals ruled that the weekly holiday wage (weekend wage) should be calculated, and therefore the workers who worked 14 hours a week in one case and 21 hours in the other had the right to a weekly holiday. In this case-law analysis, answers have been sought to the questions of whether there is a change in jurisprudence and how these recent decisions of the Court of Appeals should be interpreted.