Dismissing a hotel employee: valid reason, just cause and the notice letter

Turkish Labour Law gives a hotel two routes: end an indefinite contract with notice and a valid reason, or end it at once for just cause. A valid reason must arise from the worker's capacity or conduct, or from the requirements of the business, workplace or work, and the employer must prove it.

A department head wants the person gone before the end of the shift. The letter goes out that afternoon, and the hotel meets the same case months later in front of a mediator, with nothing in the file but a guest complaint and a verbal warning nobody wrote down. This article walks through the dismissal rules Türkiye hotels work under: the two legal routes, who has job security, when the worker must be heard first, what the letter must say, and what happens after it is delivered.

What are the two routes for dismissing a hotel employee in Türkiye?#

There are two: end an indefinite contract with notice and a valid reason, or end it at once for just cause. They sit in different articles, need different evidence, and are not interchangeable.

Route one runs through Article 17 of Law No. 4857: the hotel notifies the worker, the contract ends at the end of the notice period, and where job security applies the reason must also be valid under Article 18. Route two runs through Article 25: the contract is ended before its term or without waiting for the notice period, on listed grounds such as breach of trust, assault, or absence without permission for two consecutive working days. The full grounds are set out in the consolidated text of Law No. 4857 on the Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (opens in a new tab) (T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, 7 November 2026).

Paying the wages for the notice period in advance shortens the calendar, not the obligation: Article 17 states that neither notice nor payment in advance prevents Articles 18 to 21 from applying. The notice periods are minimums and a contract may lengthen them; they run from the moment the other party is notified. Choosing the route is a decision about what the hotel can prove, not about how fast it wants the person out of the building.

Notice and pay in lieu, as Article 17 states them#

Minimums only; a contract may increase them, and the employer may pay the wages for the period in advance instead of working it out. Source: T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, İş Kanunu No. 4857, Articles 17 and 27, consolidated text, 7 November 2026.

Job-search leave during the notice period#

During the notice period, Article 27 requires job-search leave of at least two hours a day, inside working hours and without a deduction from pay. The worker may combine the hours and use them in the days before leaving, telling the employer. If that leave is not given, the wages for the time are paid; if the worker is made to work through it, the employer pays the wage for those hours increased by 100 percent on top of the leave pay.

Who has job security: does a seasonal team count toward thirty workers?#

Job security covers a worker with at least six months' seniority in a workplace that employs thirty or more workers. Below that line the worker can still challenge the termination, but not with a reinstatement claim.

The count is of workers employed at the workplace; if the employer has more than one workplace in the same line of business, the headcount is the total of those workplaces. The six months of seniority is counted across the same employer's workplaces, so a worker who moved between two hotels of one group keeps that time. The rules do not cover the employer's representative who manages the whole business and their assistants, or the representative who manages the whole workplace with authority to hire and dismiss.

The thirty-worker and six-month tests#

A seasonal hotel's headcount moves through the year: a team that passes thirty in high season and falls well below it in winter changes the picture from month to month. Check the position for your own case with a lawyer rather than assuming one number. Outside Articles 18 to 21, a worker whose contract is ended by an abuse of the right to terminate receives compensation of three times the notice period, plus notice compensation if notice was not given either.

What changes when the season ends#

Keep a monthly headcount record and an organization chart. The threshold is a fact the hotel may have to prove, and memory is a poor witness in a hearing. Seasonal hiring and the end of the season have their own mechanics, covered in hiring seasonal staff and ending the season.

What is a valid reason, and what is never one?#

A valid reason arises from the worker's capacity or conduct, or from the requirements of the business, workplace or work. The employer must prove it, and some grounds are closed to the hotel entirely.

Capacity means the worker's competence or health limits, within the boundaries Article 25 sets for health terminations. Conduct means behaviour at work: the Article 25(II) list is the hard end of it, and lesser conduct can still be a valid reason if it is documented and proportionate. Business requirements are about the position, not the person: a section closing, a function moving to another site, a genuine fall in the need for the role. Write down why the role is no longer needed before you name the worker who holds it.

Never valid, among others: union membership or activity, acting as union representative, applying to administrative or judicial authorities to pursue rights, race, colour, sex, marital status, family responsibilities, pregnancy, birth, religion, political opinion and similar. Also closed: absence during maternity leave periods, and temporary absence due to illness or accident during the waiting period in Article 25(I)(b).

Capacity, conduct and business requirements#

Poor performance needs a standard set in advance, a record of the gap against it, and a chance to improve. A job description written before the problem starts is the cheapest evidence a hotel can own; see writing job descriptions for hotel roles. Discrimination and pregnancy-related questions belong with a lawyer, not with a checklist on a blog.

When must the hotel hear the worker before dismissing?#

Before terminating for reasons relating to conduct or performance, the employer must take the worker's defence against the allegations. The exception is termination on the Article 25(II) conduct grounds.

Put the allegations in writing, with the dates, the place, the people involved and copies of the documents the hotel relies on. Give a stated time to answer in writing and record the day the request was handed over and the day the answer came back. If no answer comes, record that too. Silence is not an admission, but the file should show the worker was asked.

The reason in the termination letter should match the allegations that were put to the worker; a new reason appearing for the first time in the letter is hard to defend. Collect the evidence before the meeting, not after: witness statements, the incident report, guest correspondence, and a decision on how long camera footage is kept. What an incident file should hold is covered in what to record in a hotel incident report.

How to run the defence request#

Hand over a written list of allegations with a deadline, and keep both the request and the answer. The discipline of the defence request is that it forces the hotel to state its case before it decides, which is exactly what a mediator or judge will later ask to see.

What the file should hold#

A guest complaint is the start of an investigation, not a finding. Take the guest's account in writing, hear the worker, then decide whether the conduct meets a valid reason.

What must the termination letter state, and how is it delivered?#

The employer must give notice of termination in writing and state the reason clearly and precisely. A general formula about "the needs of the business" is not a reason.

Name the route: notice under Article 17, or immediate termination under Article 25 with the sub-clause that applies. State the facts with dates, places and amounts where they matter, in the same words used when the worker was heard. Sign and date it, keep a copy, and deliver it so that receipt can be proved: hand delivery against a signed receipt, or through a notary.

Never ask the worker to sign a resignation, and never put a blank or partly blank paper in front of them to make the exit quicker. Never make the letter conditional on signing a release or a settlement; that is a separate negotiation, and it needs its own advice. A sample letter taken from the internet is a format, not a legal opinion. Have a lawyer read your template once, then reuse it.

Hotel cases: theft, a fight, a guest complaint, poor performance#

Each of these needs a different route and a different file. The label on the incident does not decide the article; the evidence does. The cases below are illustrative, not legal advice.

Theft and breach of trust#

Theft or breach of trust, for example a missing case from the luggage room: Article 25(II)(e) covers breach of trust, theft and similar dishonesty, but the hotel must be able to show the act. Record the inventory, the shift, the access log and the statements, and decide early whether the police are involved.

A fight or drink at work#

A fight or a worker arriving drunk: Article 25(II)(d) covers assault on the employer, family members or another worker, and coming to work drunk or under the influence. Separate the people, take statements the same day, and check the Article 26 clock.

A guest complaint#

A guest complaint about staff, for example a complaint about a receptionist's tone at check-out: on its own it does not justify a dismissal. It opens an investigation, and the outcome may be a valid reason, a warning or nothing at all.

Poor performance#

Poor performance, for example repeated errors in night audit: this is the valid-reason route, with a written standard, a record of the gap and a defence, not a just-cause ground.

The Article 26 limit matters for all conduct cases: the right to terminate on grounds of conduct against morality and good faith cannot be used after six working days from the day the employer learned of the conduct, and in any case after one year from the act; the one-year limit does not apply if the worker gained a material benefit from it. Consistency is evidence. A rule enforced against one worker and ignored for another weakens every later case the hotel brings.

What happens after the letter: time limits, mediation and final pay#

The worker has one month from the notice being served to apply to a mediator with a reinstatement claim; if mediation fails, the lawsuit must be filed within two weeks of the final report.

Applying to a mediator is a precondition for reinstatement claims and for claims for wages and compensation based on the law or the contract; a case filed without it is dismissed on procedural grounds, under Article 3 of the Labour Courts Law No. 7036 (consolidated text on the Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi (opens in a new tab), T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi, 7 November 2026). The application goes to the mediation office where the other party is domiciled or where the work is done, and the mediator concludes within three weeks of appointment, extendable by at most one week in compulsory cases.

Mediation as a precondition#

If a party misses the first meeting without a valid excuse, it is named in the final report and bears half of the litigation costs the other side would have to pay, even if it later wins; only half of the tariff attorney's fee is awarded in its favour. If the parties settle reinstatement in mediation, they must fix the start date, the money for the idle period and the compensation if the worker is not started; otherwise no agreement is deemed reached.

What an invalid dismissal costs#

If the termination is found invalid, the employer must start the worker within one month of the worker's application, or pay compensation of at least four and at most eight months' wages, plus up to four months' wages and other rights for the idle period. Final pay, severance and the social security exit code are separate steps with their own rules, and the exit code is not a comment on the dismissal; see SGK exit codes at season end. Confirm the dates, the penalties and your own case with an accountant or a legal adviser before you act.

What to do before the next dismissal#

Build the file in this order: decide the route, check the headcount and seniority, write the reason as one sentence with dates, take the defence, then let a lawyer read the letter before it leaves the desk. The two routes are the spine of the dismissal rules Türkiye hotels work under, and everything else, the thirty-worker test, the defence, the notice table and the mediation clock, hangs from the route you chose on the first day.