Outsourcing hotel housekeeping in Türkiye: subcontractor rules and decision questions

A hotel in Türkiye can give cleaning to a subcontractor (alt işveren) only for auxiliary tasks, or for part of the main work that needs expertise for business and technological reasons. The hotel stays jointly liable for the contractor's workers' legal and contractual claims, and must not use the arrangement to re-hire its own staff.

Outsourcing hotel housekeeping in Türkiye is a common way to control cost per room, and it carries a legal question that the price does not answer. Who tells the cleaner which room to take first at 07:00 decides whether the hotel has bought a service or created a labour problem. This article explains what Turkish labour law allows a subcontractor to take on, what joint liability means in monthly practice, which daily habits create sham (muvazaa) risk, and what the service contract must cover beyond the price. The legal framework comes from Article 2 of Law No. 4857 and the Subcontracting Regulation of 2008, as consolidated on the Presidency Legislation Information System (2026).

What exactly is being outsourced?#

Name the scope before the price. Public areas, night cleaning, rooms and the whole department are four different contracts, and each carries different supervision, key and legal questions.

Public area cleaning, meaning the lobby, corridors, toilets and back of house, is the narrowest scope and the easiest to describe as work linked to production without being part of the production organization itself. Night cleaning covers similar tasks on a different clock: state who is on site at 02:00, who they report to, and how a problem at that hour reaches a hotel manager. Room cleaning sits closest to what the guest pays for, a clean and working room, so the expertise and business-need test in the law matters most here. The whole department pulls in rosters, linen par stock, minibar, lost property, inspection and the room status the front desk relies on; a single contract line rarely describes all of it.

Write the scope as tasks and standards, not as a job title. For example, a scope line such as "clean and inspect 120 rooms a day to the hotel's standard, report room status, log lost property" beats "housekeeping services", because it can be checked, priced and inspected. The scope line also decides who may instruct whom: if the hotel keeps the right to direct individual cleaners, the contract says one thing and the floor says another. If you are unsure how the roles should be divided, a housekeeping organization chart by hotel size is a good place to see which responsibilities exist before you hand any of them over.

What does Turkish labour law let a subcontractor take on?#

Article 2 of Labour Law No. 4857 allows a subcontractor in two situations only: auxiliary tasks, or part of the main work where the needs of the business and the work and technological reasons call for expertise. The consolidated text of Law No. 4857 on mevzuat.gov.tr (opens in a new tab) defines the principal employer and subcontractor relationship, and the Subcontracting Regulation (Resmî Gazete, 27 September 2008, No. 27010, amended in 2017 and 2021) fills in the conditions.

Auxiliary work, as the Regulation words it, is linked to production but not directly part of the production organization, is not an essential element of production, and continues as long as the main work does and depends on it. Part of the main work is allowed only where expertise is needed for the needs of the business and for technological reasons; the main work may not be split and given out piece by piece. The hotel must itself have workers in the production work. A hotel that has emptied the department and kept only a contract has a problem the contract cannot fix.

The subcontract is made in writing and states, among other things, the main work, the work given and the joint liability.

No text names housekeeping as auxiliary or as main work. The Regulation sets a test, and courts apply that test case by case, so the answer depends on your scope, your staffing and your reasons. The same test applies to the laundry question for hotels; the mechanism is identical, only the work differs, and how a hotel decides between in-house and outsourced laundry works through the same two lanes.

What does joint liability mean for the hotel?#

The hotel answers alongside the contractor for the contractor's workers' claims arising from the law, the employment contract or the contractor's collective agreement, in relation to that workplace. In practice this reaches unpaid wages, overtime, notice and severance, and other claims a worker could bring against their own employer.

It is not a cap and not a substitute: the contractor remains the employer, and the hotel that pays can seek recourse, which is only worth as much as the contractor's balance sheet. That is why the monthly file matters more than the monthly invoice. Keep the records for the period your adviser confirms, including the months after termination. A contractor with thin capital and a low price is a liability question before it is a price question.

Joint liability is described here in general terms; its scope, the amounts and the recourse belong with your legal adviser and your accountant.

Which daily habits create a sham (muvazaa) risk?#

The habits where the hotel behaves as the real employer: instructing the contractor's staff directly, deciding who is hired and dismissed, and putting former hotel employees on the contractor's payroll.

In a sham review, labour inspectors look in particular at whether the work is auxiliary, whether it needs expertise, whether the subcontractor previously worked at that workplace, whether it has adequate equipment and experience, whether the workers suit the job, and whether the contract aims to avoid public obligations or restrict workers' rights. Two prohibitions are named in the law itself: the hotel's workers may not have their rights restricted by being re-hired through the subcontractor, and no subcontracting relationship may be set up with someone previously employed at that workplace.

The consequence is severe. The relationship is deemed a sham and the contractor's workers are treated as the hotel's workers from the start. The procedure has a clock: if inspectors find a sham and the employers do not object within 30 working days, or a court confirms the finding, the registration is cancelled.

Examine your habits honestly: who writes the daily room list and sets the order of rooms, who approves leave, who disciplines, who signs the timesheet, who interviews a replacement, who chooses the uniform. The line to hold is direction of the work versus direction of the result. A hotel can reject a badly cleaned room and require it re-cleaned without telling the cleaner how to hold the cloth. For the wider vocabulary of employer duties in practice, from puantaj to notice periods, see labour law terms hotel employers meet in practice.

What should the service contract cover beyond the price?#

Inspection, keys, lost property, turnover and peak weeks, each with a named person and a written standard.

Inspection: who inspects, how many rooms a day, the acceptance criteria referenced to the hotel's own room standard, and the window in which a rejected room must be re-cleaned. Keys: who holds master keys and key cards, how they are signed out, what happens when one is lost; the contractor's staff should sit inside the hotel's key log, not beside it, and key control in hotels is worth settling before the first cleaner arrives. Lost property: the chain from the room to the store, who logs the item, who hands it to the guest, and where the record lives.

Turnover and replacement: how fast a replacement arrives, who trains them, and what the hotel requires before someone works a floor alone. Peak weeks: minimum staffing per day, the notice required for extra cleaners, and what the hotel does when the contractor cannot supply them. Supplies and linen: who buys chemicals, who owns the linen, who counts it and how shortages are settled. Termination and handover: staff list, keys, records, notice period, and the review meeting that produces numbers the hotel can check.

What should you ask your legal adviser before signing?#

Bring three things: the written scope, the draft contract and the staffing plan, and ask whether the arrangement survives the Article 2 test.

Work through the questions in order. Is this scope auxiliary work under the Regulation's definition, or part of the main work, and on which expertise and technological grounds? Does the hotel itself still have workers in the production work after the contract starts? Is anyone on the contractor's staff list a former employee of this hotel, and how is that documented? Does the contract state the main work, the work given and the joint liability in the terms the Regulation asks for?

Then the operational side. Which records prove wages and social security were paid each month, who checks them, and what happens when one is missing? What happens on termination: staff, keys, records, and the tail of joint liability? And the plainest question of all: what would an inspector see on a normal Tuesday, who instructs, who signs, who disciplines?

What to do next#

Write the scope as tasks and standards this week, then take that page, the draft contract and the staffing plan to a legal adviser before the price is agreed. The order matters: scope decides which lane of Article 2 you are in, the lane decides how much supervision the hotel may keep, joint liability decides what you collect every month, and the daily habits decide what an inspector would see.