Employer's liability insurance and SGK recourse after a staff accident

Employer's liability insurance (işveren mali sorumluluk sigortası) is a voluntary policy that pays two things after a work accident: compensation a worker or family is owed above SGK benefits, and the amount SGK recovers from the employer under Article 23 of Law 5510. It is not on Türkiye's compulsory insurance list.

A commis slips on a wet kitchen floor and breaks a wrist. Within weeks the hotel is handling two files, not one: the family's compensation claim, and a letter from SGK asking for the money it has already paid out. This article explains how those two files work, what employer liability insurance in Türkiye actually covers, and what to check in your own wording before an accident happens. It is written for hotel owners, accountants, HR staff and safety experts, and it is a summary, not legal advice.

What two claims follow a staff accident in a hotel?#

Two claims with different owners. The injured worker or their family claims compensation from the hotel, and SGK separately recovers from the hotel what it has paid.

The worker's claim is a civil liability claim. It covers bodily harm, loss of earnings and treatment costs, and moral damages stand as a separate head of claim. SGK, for its part, pays the benefits the Law provides to the insured person or dependants, such as the temporary incapacity allowance and any income awarded. Then comes the second file, recourse: SGK turns to the employer to get its money back, and the recourse file is a separate step from the worker's own claim.

Both files rest on the same evidence: the incident report, the risk assessment, the training records, the maintenance logs. A policy answers both heads only if both sit inside its wording and its limits, which is why the wording matters more than the price.

How does SGK recourse work under Article 21?#

If a work accident results from the employer's intent, or from conduct contrary to the legislation on protecting insured people's health and on occupational safety, SGK makes the employer pay back what SGK has paid or will pay. This is the rule in Article 21 of Law 5510, in the consolidated text on the Presidency's legislation database, mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab) (2026).

What is recovered: the payments made or to be made to the insured person or their dependants under the Law, plus the initial capital value of any income awarded, valued at the date the income starts. There is a ceiling: the amount is limited to what the insured person or the dependants could themselves claim from the employer. Unavoidability (kaçınılmazlık) is taken into account when the employer's liability is set, so an accident that proper measures could not have prevented reduces or removes the employer's share.

Recourse is not automatic. It needs intent or conduct contrary to the occupational health and safety legislation, so the file is about what the hotel did and did not do. There is also a reporting rule: for employees insured under Article 4(1)(a), the accident goes to the local police and to SGK within three working days, and if it does not, SGK collects the temporary incapacity allowance paid for the period until the report is made.

Third-party fault changes the split. Where someone else's fault caused the accident, half of the payments and of the initial capital value is recovered from that third party, and from its employer if that employer is also at fault.

Is employer's liability insurance compulsory in Türkiye?#

No. Employer's liability is not on Türkiye's list of compulsory insurances. The policy is voluntary, and buying it is a commercial decision.

Article 13 of Insurance Law 5684 lets the President create compulsory insurances where the public interest requires it, and insurers may not refuse to write a compulsory cover in a branch they operate in. SEDDK, the insurance regulator, publishes the general conditions. Several schemes carry "Zorunlu" in their titles: motor third-party liability, private security, hazardous substances, medical malpractice, LPG cylinders, mine workers' personal accident and earthquake. The Employer's Liability Insurance General Conditions on SEDDK's general conditions page appear among the liability conditions without that label.

Voluntary does not always mean optional in practice. A lender, a tour operator contract, a franchise agreement or a group insurance program may require the cover. Read your own contracts, not the market. Compulsory and voluntary covers answer different questions; for a full map of the compulsory ones, see our guide on which insurance is compulsory for a hotel in Türkiye.

What does an employer's liability policy cover, and what does it exclude?#

Article 1 of the general conditions covers two heads up to the amounts written in the policy: workers' or dependants' compensation claims above SGK benefits, and the amounts payable at the end of SGK recourse actions. Several things are excluded unless agreed otherwise, according to the Employer's Liability Insurance General Conditions published by SEDDK (opens in a new tab) (2026).

Head one is the compensation claim: workers employed under a service contract and subject to the Social Insurance Law, or their dependants, claiming above and outside what SGK provides. Head two is the recourse amount itself, the money SGK demands back after a work accident. Both heads are inside the standard wording.

The exclusions matter more. By default, the cover excludes occupational diseases, moral (non-pecuniary) damages, accidents outside Türkiye, and accidents during collective transport provided by the employer or during duty travel. "Unless agreed otherwise" is the whole game: ask specifically for occupational disease cover, moral damages and duty travel, and get the answer in writing with its premium effect. Read the limits three ways: per accident, per person, and in the aggregate, then check whether defence costs sit inside or outside the limit. Moral damages sit outside the standard wording, so a serious injury can leave the largest part of the claim uncovered unless you buy it back.

Does the policy replace safety work?#

No. The policy pays money after the event. It does not remove the employer's duties, and the recourse claim is built on whether the hotel broke occupational safety rules.

Article 4 of Law 6331 makes the employer responsible for employees' health and safety in relation to work, in the consolidated text of the Occupational Health and Safety Law (opens in a new tab) (2026). The employer must take every kind of measure, including prevention, training and information; organise the work; provide the necessary tools and equipment; adapt measures to changing conditions; and work to improve the existing situation. The same article requires the employer to monitor and check that the measures are followed and to have non-compliance corrected.

The employer must also carry out a risk assessment or have one carried out, take the employee's fitness into account when assigning work, and keep employees out of places with life-threatening or special dangers unless they have adequate information and instructions. Three further rules sit in the same article: using outside experts or organisations does not remove the employer's responsibilities; employees' own obligations do not affect the employer's responsibilities; and the employer may not pass the cost of safety measures on to employees.

The practical consequence is simple. The file you would hand an insurer is the same file that decides the recourse share, so build it before anything happens. For department-level detail, see our occupational health and safety checklist by hotel department, and for staffing duties, the article on hazard class, safety expert time and training hours for a hotel.

Are contractor staff, interns and trainees covered?#

Not automatically. The general conditions speak of workers employed under a service contract and subject to the Social Insurance Law, so anyone outside that description needs a written answer from the insurer.

Hotels routinely use outsourced housekeeping, security, kitchen and animation staff. A policy written around your own payroll may not follow them. Ask in writing whether contractor personnel are covered, under which clause, and whether their claims share your limit or sit in a separate one. For interns and trainees, their position under social insurance decides whether they fall inside the wording; do not assume either way.

Where a contractor's fault contributes, Article 21 allows recovery from that third party and from its employer if that employer is also at fault, so the two files can meet in the same accident. Keep a daily record of who was on site, for which contractor, under which contract. After an accident, this record is what tells you which policy responds.

What papers will the insurer ask for after an accident?#

The accident file: what happened, what the hotel knew beforehand, and what it did about it. Insurers read the same documents a court or SGK would read.

The core is an incident report written the same day: time, place, people present, witnesses, and what was done immediately. For what belongs in it, see our guide on what a hotel incident report should record after an accident. Add proof and the date of the police and SGK notification, because the date itself can create a separate SGK claim under the three-working-day rule.

Then the prevention papers: the current risk assessment for that department with its review date, training records with signatures, PPE handover forms, and maintenance or inspection logs for the equipment involved. Then the money papers: medical reports and invoices, every piece of correspondence with the worker or the family, and the SGK recourse notice itself once it arrives, with the amount claimed and the calculation behind it.

Never rewrite an incident report later. Corrections belong in a dated addendum, and the original stays as written.

What to do next#

Pull the policy schedule and the general conditions, list every exclusion on one page, and send your broker a written question for each: is it covered, at what limit, and at what premium. Then check that the accident file for each department could be produced tomorrow. The policy and the safety file answer the same question, and only one of them can be built after the accident.