According to Article 47 of the Labour Law, the employee who does not work on national holiday in Turkey and general holidays must be paid his/her wage for that day in full without any work, and if he/she has worked, he/she must be paid one more day’s wage for each day. Accordingly, when the employee works on a national holiday in Turkey and general holiday, the wage accrual for that day must be made and paid for two days.
The explanations made for weeks holidays on how the national holiday in Turkey and general holiday wage will be calculated according to the wage forms and which wage will be taken as basis in the calculation are also valid here. Only in accordance with Article 49, even if the employee is paid monthly, it is obligatory to pay the general holiday wages separately.
The explanations on week holidays should be taken into consideration for those who work with part-time employment contracts at the workplace, and the wage should be paid one times more if the days are worked.
Another issue that needs to be addressed regarding national holidays and general holidays is related to workers working abroad. Here, the problem arises when the worker working abroad does not work on the days that are accepted as public holidays according to the legislation of the country where he works, but works on the days that are accepted as national holidays and general holidays according to the legislation of our country. In such a situation, since the national law should be used in the disputes between the Turkish worker working in the workplace of the Turkish company and his employer in accordance with Article 27 of the Law No. 5718 on International Private Law and Procedure, the payment of the wage for national and religious holidays in accordance with the Turkish legislation to the wage paid for the national and religious holidays in accordance with the legislation of the foreign country leads to a double payment. For this reason, it will be appropriate to deduct the holiday wages that have not been paid in accordance with the foreign country legislation from the wage calculated as the wage calculated in return for working on the day that is a national holiday in Turkey and general holiday in accordance with the Turkish legislation.
