Labour law terms for hotel employers: denkleştirme, puantaj, yüzde usulü and more

These are the Turkish words a hotel rota, payroll and inspection file are built from. Denkleştirme is averaging weekly hours over a longer period, puantaj is the daily attendance record, and yüzde usulü is the service-charge system under Article 51 of Labour Law No. 4857. Each entry below gives the plain meaning and the article it comes from.

A department head signs a timesheet she did not design, in a language she reads slowly, and the words printed on it decide what her team is paid. The contract, the rota and the inspection file are all in Turkish, so the Turkish word is the one to learn. After reading this page you will know what each term means, which article of the law it comes from, and which question to take to your adviser.

How to use this glossary#

Each entry gives the Turkish term, its plain English meaning, the article of Labour Law No. 4857 it comes from, and one line on where it appears in a hotel's month. These labour law terms for hotels in Türkiye follow the wording of the law only, as published on mevzuat.gov.tr. They are not legal advice, and they deliberately leave out amounts, penalties and how courts have read a term.

One term, one meaning. Use the same word in the contract, the rota, the HR file and the payroll, so a reader can follow the trail from the shift to the payment. Where a term is practice rather than statute, the entry says so: puantaj and bordro are everyday words, not defined terms in the law. Anything about money, dates or your own case goes to an accountant or legal adviser.

Time words: what do denkleştirme, ara dinlenmesi and gece çalışması mean?#

They are the three words that decide whether a rota is legal: how weekly hours are averaged, when the unpaid break falls, and what counts as night. Normal working time, haftalık çalışma süresi, is at most 45 hours a week under Article 63, and everything else in this section is an exception built around that number.

Denkleştirme is averaging. By agreement, weekly hours may be spread unevenly across working days, provided no day exceeds 11 hours and the weekly average over the period stays within normal weekly hours. The period is two months generally, four months in tourism, and a collective agreement may extend it to six (Article 63). The consequence that matters at payroll: inside a valid denkleştirme, a week above 45 hours is not overtime while the average holds.

Ara dinlenmesi is the break: 15 minutes for work of four hours or less, 30 minutes for more than four and up to seven and a half hours, and one hour above seven and a half. These are minimums, given without interruption around the middle of the day, and a contract may split them for climate, season, local custom and the nature of the work (Article 68).

Denkleştirme in one sentence#

The season's high weeks are legal at more than 45 hours a week if the four-month average stays inside the limit and no single day passes 11 hours.

Why the break is not paid time#

Breaks do not count as working time. A nine-hour shift with a one-hour break is eight hours of work, and the rota should show it that way, so the puantaj and the payroll agree from the start.

Gece çalışması is night work: night is a period that starts no later than 20:00, ends no earlier than 06:00 and lasts at most 11 hours. Night work may not exceed seven and a half hours, though in tourism longer night work is possible with the worker's written consent (Article 69). Where the workplace runs day and night in rotating shifts, a worker who worked nights for one working week works days the following week, and a two-week rotation may be used instead. A worker whose shift changes may not work the other shift without at least 11 hours of uninterrupted rest.

For the full mechanism, see the 45-hour week, the four-month balancing period and night shifts.

Overtime words: what is the difference between fazla çalışma and fazla sürelerle çalışma?#

Fazla çalışma is work beyond 45 hours a week. The law treats overtime as its own case, so confirm the applicable rate with your adviser before you run a payroll.

Fazla çalışma requires the worker's consent, may not exceed 270 hours in a year, may not be done in night work under Article 69, and each hour is paid at the normal hourly wage plus 50%. Where hours are averaged under Article 63, a week above 45 hours is not overtime as long as the average stays within normal weekly hours. This is the confusion that produces most payroll arguments in hotels.

Serbest zaman: pay or time off#

Serbest zaman is free time instead of the premium, at the worker's choice. The law sets how much time is owed per hour worked and how long the worker has to use it; record the choice in writing, because it changes what the payroll owes.

Make-up work is not a punishment for a quiet week#

Telafi çalışması is make-up work for time not worked: work stopped for compelling reasons, the workplace closed before or after a national or public holiday, hours that ran well below normal, or leave the worker took at their own request. It runs within four months, extendable by the President up to double, is not overtime, may not exceed three hours a day and may not be done on holidays (Article 64).

The full mechanism is worked through in overtime in hotels: consent, the 270-hour cap, pay and time off.

Contract words: when is a hotel contract belirli süreli?#

A contract is belirsiz süreli, indefinite, unless the employment relationship is tied to a period; a belirli süreli, fixed-term, contract must be in writing and rest on an objective condition. Article 11 allows a fixed-term contract for fixed-term work, or on objective conditions such as completing a specific job or a specific event occurring. The reason goes into the contract, not only the start and end dates.

Without an essential reason, a fixed-term contract may not be made more than once in succession. If it is, it is treated as indefinite from the start. Chained contracts that do rest on an essential reason stay fixed-term. Mevsimlik iş, seasonal work, is the classic objective condition in a hotel: the season is the period, so write the season and the reason into the contract so the file shows why the end date exists.

Deneme süresi is probation: at most two months, four with a collective agreement. During probation either party may terminate without notice and without compensation, and the worker keeps wages and other rights for the days worked (Article 15). Probation is not a substitute for a fixed-term reason, and a fixed-term reason is not a substitute for probation; they answer different questions and are often confused in the same file.

Where it shows up: the May hiring wave, the contract folder, and the first question an inspector asks about a worker who has returned for several seasons. For the first week after signing, see seasonal staff onboarding: a first-week training checklist by department.

Pay and record words: what are puantaj, bordro and yüzde usulü?#

Puantaj is the daily attendance record, bordro is the payroll that pays from it, and yüzde usulü is the service-charge system regulated by Article 51. Puantaj is the day-by-day record of hours worked, breaks, absences and extra hours for each worker. It is practice rather than a defined term in the law, and it is the document that makes every limit above provable.

Keep one puantaj format across departments. A front-desk record in one layout and a housekeeping record in another cannot be read together, which is exactly what an inspection tries to do. Bordro is the payroll document; it must agree with the puantaj, because the two are read side by side, and a difference between them is the finding, not the explanation.

Why the puantaj is the file that defends you#

Yüzde usulü (Article 51): in hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and similar places that use the percentage method, the employer must pay in full to all workers at the workplace the money added to customers' bills as a service charge or under other names, the money customers leave to the employer of their own accord, and the money collected under the employer's control. The employer must document that the money was distributed in full, and a Ministry regulation sets how it is distributed. Article 52 adds that the employer gives a document showing each bill's total to a representative the workers choose.

Where it shows up: the end of the month, the service-charge pot, and the restaurant and bar outlets where the money is collected.

Notification words: what is an işe giriş bildirgesi and what is Form 2?#

The işe giriş bildirgesi tells the Social Security Institution that a worker is starting; Form 2 belongs to the identity notification rules that apply to the facility. They go to different authorities and answer different questions.

İşe giriş bildirgesi is the insured employment entry notice under Article 8 of Law No. 5510, given to SGK before the insurance start date. Under Article 7(1)(a) insurance starts on the day the worker starts work, so the notice must be given before the first working day. This is the deadline most often missed in a seasonal hiring week.

The exceptions are narrow: construction, fishing and agricultural workplaces may notify on the day work starts; a workplace registering with SGK for the first time may notify by the end of the month for employees who start within one month of its first hiring; certain public-sector staff have one month. A hotel is not a construction, fishing or agricultural workplace, so the exception that can apply is the newly registering workplace, such as a hotel in its opening month. Failing the duty brings an administrative fine under Article 102; the amount is set by current rules, so ask your adviser rather than relying on a figure from an old file.

Form 2 is the staff form under the identity notification rules that apply to the facility, covering the people who work there; confirm the current version and submission route with your local authority before the season starts. Çalışma izni is the permission a foreign national needs in order to work, separate from the residence permit; confirm the current procedure with your adviser before the contract is signed, not after the worker arrives. For the parallel duty covering guests and staff identity reporting, see KBS staff notification: identity reporting for the people who work at a hotel.

What to do next#

Take your own contract, rota and puantaj, and write the article number next to every term they use. Where a term has no article behind it, that is the gap your adviser should see first. The time words decide the rota, the overtime words decide the payroll, the contract words decide the personnel file, the pay words prove all three, and the notification words start the employment before the first shift does.