Overtime in hotels: consent, the 270-hour cap, pay and time off

Overtime is work beyond 45 hours a week under Labour Law No. 4857. It needs the worker's written consent, may not exceed 270 hours a year, may not be done in night work, and is paid at the normal hourly wage plus 50%, unless the worker chooses free time instead. These are the overtime rules Türkiye hotel managers must apply every season.

On the second night of a full house in August, the night auditor calls in sick and the front office manager asks a daytime receptionist to stay on. The guest is served, the hours are real, and nothing about that decision is written down yet. After reading this article you will know whether those hours were overtime, whether they needed consent, what they cost or what they can be traded for, and which three records will prove it months later.

What counts as overtime in a hotel?#

Overtime is work beyond 45 hours in a week. Where a hotel balances hours across weeks under Article 63, a single week above 45 hours is not overtime as long as the average stays within the normal weekly hours.

Normal working time is at most 45 hours a week under Article 63 of Labour Law No. 4857. By agreement, the weekly hours may be spread unevenly over the working days, provided no day exceeds 11 hours and the weekly average over the balancing period stays within the normal weekly hours. The balancing period is two months, four months in tourism, and up to six months where a collective agreement extends it. Peak season is exactly what this period exists for.

The consequence is counter-intuitive. A 52-hour week inside a balanced four-month period is not overtime if the average holds. The same 52-hour week outside any balancing arrangement is overtime from the 45th hour. If you want the full mechanics of the 45-hour week, the 45-hour week and the four-month balancing period are covered in a separate article on working hours.

Where a contract sets a week shorter than 45 hours, work above the contractual week up to 45 hours is not overtime but extra hours (fazla sürelerle çalışma), paid at a lower premium. For working life, night is a period that starts no later than 20:00, ends no earlier than 06:00 and lasts at most 11 hours. A worker's night work may not exceed seven and a half hours, with a written-consent exception in tourism under Article 69.

In practice, two receptionists on the same roster can be in different positions: one on a 45-hour contract inside a balancing calendar, one on a 40-hour contract earning extra hours from hour 41. The contract, not the roster, decides which.

Overtime, extra hours and a balanced week#

Does overtime need the worker's consent?#

Yes. Overtime and extra hours need the worker's written consent, except overtime for compelling reasons or in extraordinary situations.

The employer obtains the consent when the employment contract is made or when the need arises, and keeps it in the worker's personnel file, under Article 9 of the Overtime Regulation (Resmî Gazete, 6 April 2004, No. 25425, as amended 25 August 2017). The consent is written. A verbal agreement in the corridor does not produce the document the file will need months later.

The worker may withdraw consent with 30 days' written notice to the employer. Standing consent is therefore not permanent, and a hotel that relies on it should know the clock can start at any time.

The regulation excepts overtime for compelling reasons or in extraordinary situations, where prior written consent is not required. Describe your own case to a labour adviser rather than assuming the exception covers a busy weekend.

Consent is per worker, not per department. Seasonal staff need their own form, signed before the peak rather than during it, and the seasonal staff onboarding checklist covers where this step sits in the first week. Consent opens the door and nothing more: it does not lift the 270-hour yearly cap and it does not make overtime in night work lawful.

What is the 270-hour cap, and where is overtime banned?#

Overtime may not exceed 270 hours in a year, and it may not be done in night work.

The 270 hours are counted per worker across the year, not per department and not per property. A worker who moves between outlets or between group hotels carries the total. The cap is a ceiling on overtime. Extra hours are a separate category with their own premium, so a payroll that mixes the two cannot show whether the cap is being respected.

Night work is defined by its frame, not by the clock on the wall: a period starting no later than 20:00, ending no earlier than 06:00 and lasting at most 11 hours, and a worker's night work may not exceed seven and a half hours. In tourism, private security, health services and certain petroleum work, night work may exceed seven and a half hours where the worker's written consent is obtained under Article 69. That exception concerns the length of the night shift, not permission to work overtime on it.

Where a workplace runs day and night with rotating shifts, workers who worked nights for one working week work days in the following week; a two-week rotation may also be used. A worker whose shift changes may not work the other shift without at least 11 hours of uninterrupted rest.

For a hotel this turns a payroll question into a scheduling one: a night-shift worker near the cap cannot be solved with money, only with a different roster.

Pay or time off: how does the 50 percent premium work?#

Each overtime hour is paid at the normal hourly wage plus 50%, or the worker may choose free time instead of the premium.

The premium is 50% on top of the normal hourly wage for overtime, and 25% for extra hours. The free-time alternative gives 1 hour 30 minutes of free time for each overtime hour and 1 hour 15 minutes for each extra hour.

The worker applies to the employer in writing to take free time instead of the premium, and notifies the employer in writing in advance, under Article 6 of the Overtime Regulation. The choice sits with the worker, not with the roster. Free time is used within six months, during working hours, in one piece and with no cut in pay, from a date the employer sets to suit the work. It may not be given on statutory or contractual holidays and leave days.

Overtime pay is shown clearly on payrolls and pay slips under Article 10, which is also what makes the choice visible to the worker after the fact.

How do you calculate overtime pay? A worked example#

Multiply the worker's hourly rate by 1.5 and by the number of overtime hours. The figures below are placeholders, not market rates.

Start from the hourly rate the payroll team already uses for that worker. Do not invent a divisor in the spreadsheet; use the one your payroll already applies and keep it consistent.

For example, take a worker whose hourly rate is TRY 150 and who works 10 overtime hours in a month. One overtime hour is 150 × 1.5 = TRY 225, and 10 hours come to TRY 2,250. The same 10 hours taken as free time instead of the premium come to 10 × 1.5 = 15 hours of free time, used within six months with no cut in pay. For extra hours the multiplier is 1.25: the same worker would earn 150 × 1.25 = TRY 187.50 per extra hour.

The example stops at the gross figure. Tax and social security treatment, and any premium set by a collective agreement, are matters for your accountant. Put the hours and the rate on the payroll line itself, so the worker can check the arithmetic without asking for the time sheets.

What records prove overtime was lawful?#

Three records do most of the work: a time sheet that shows the hours, a signed consent in the personnel file, and a payroll line that shows the overtime pay.

The employer prepares a document showing the overtime hours worked and keeps a signed copy in the personnel file, under Article 10 of the Overtime Regulation. The consent is filed per worker, and any later withdrawal is filed next to it, with its date. Payroll and pay slips show overtime pay clearly, separated from the base wage, so the premium can be traced back to the hours.

A time sheet has to answer a question asked months later: who worked, on which day, how many hours, in which department. If the hotel relies on the four-month averaging, the roster and the running average are part of the evidence, not an internal planning document. Records belong in the worker's personnel file, not in a department's shared drive that is emptied when the season ends.

How do you keep peak-season overtime inside the rules?#

Plan the season against the cap, not the week: forecast the hours, balance them across the four-month period, and count each worker's total every month.

Build the season's roster before the season opens, with the balancing period's average in view rather than only the busiest week. The same logic runs through shift planning that covers the desk, floors and nights fairly. Keep a per-worker overtime counter and review it monthly. A worker heading for 270 hours is visible in June, not in December.

In departments where night work is the norm, overtime is not an available lever at all, so cover those shifts with hiring or cross-training instead. Recruit and onboard early: a new hire who is productive in the first week removes overtime in the third. Have consent forms signed and filed before the peak, and note the date each one was signed.

Each month, read the payroll line against the time sheets. A gap between them is the finding, not the paperwork.

What to do next#

Pick one department, pull last season's time sheets, and check three things against them: a signed consent on file for every worker who worked beyond the normal week, hours recorded day by day, and overtime pay visible on the payroll line. Where any of the three is missing, fix the record before the next peak. Then take your own contracts, rosters and calculations to a labour adviser or accountant, because this article describes the general duty under Labour Law No. 4857 and the Overtime Regulation, and not your case.