Staff warnings in a hotel: written reports, defense requests and what makes them hold

In Türkiye a written warning holds when it is written on the day, signed by the worker or by witnesses if the worker refuses, and paired with a written defense request that gives time to reply. Article 19 of Labour Law No. 4857 requires the worker's defense before an indefinite-term contract ends for a valid reason, which covers conduct or performance problems that are not severe enough to justify immediate dismissal for just cause under Article 25. Confirm with a legal adviser which of the two grounds fits your case, because the process and the deadlines differ.

A night auditor is found asleep at 03:40 with the lobby lights off. By the time the department head writes anything down it is Friday, two people remember it differently, and the only paper in the file is a note that says the auditor is unreliable. After reading this article you will know which three documents to write, in what order, who signs what, and when the law requires you to hear the worker first.

What is a tutanak, and what can it not prove?#

A tutanak is a dated, signed record of something that happened at work, written by the people who saw it. It proves that the event was recorded, when, and by whom; it does not by itself prove misconduct or justify a dismissal.

Separate the three documents from the start. The incident report (tutanak) records the event. The defense request (savunma talebi) asks the worker for their account. The warning (ihtar) states the employer's decision and its reason. When all three are compressed into one paper, the paper does none of the three jobs well.

Write on the day, in the words of the person who saw it. A report written a week later from memory reads like a summary of a conclusion, and that is what it becomes. Record sequence and time: what was seen, where, at what hour, who else was present. For example, "at 03:40 the night auditor was asleep at the front desk, lobby lights off, key drawer closed", not "the night auditor is careless".

Keep adjectives about character and legal labels out. Write "the guest's file was open on the desk" rather than "the receptionist breached confidentiality", unless the label is itself the fact. Where nobody saw the event, say so and record the surrounding facts instead: the door log, the till count, the camera coverage, who was on shift. Do not fill the gap with inference.

Incidents that touch a guest, an injury or a loss run on a separate track with their own record, because they carry duties beyond the employment relationship. For those, see what to record after an accident, a theft or a dispute.

Who writes the report, and who signs it when the worker refuses?#

The person who saw the event writes it, a second person who saw it signs as witness, and the worker is asked to sign to confirm they were shown it. If the worker refuses, the refusal is recorded with the time and witnessed.

Say out loud what the signature means: "this confirms you were shown the report, not that you agree with it". Say that sentence before handing the paper over; it removes the most common misunderstanding. If the worker still refuses, write "read, refused to sign" with the hour, and have the witness sign that line. Never sign on the worker's behalf and never leave the line blank.

Choose a witness who saw the event, not only someone who watched the signature. Two witnesses are better than one, and a witness who was not there is worse than none. The department head writes the report; HR or the general manager does not rewrite it afterwards. Corrections are added as a dated line at the end, not by editing the text.

Offer a copy, or record that a copy was offered and refused. A report the worker never saw is difficult to rely on months later. If the worker reads in another language, have it read and explained, and record who explained it and when.

How do you ask an employee for a written defense?#

Put the request in writing, list the specific allegations one by one with dates, state how long the worker has to reply and to whom, and keep proof of the day it was handed over.

Name the allegations as facts to be answered: date, place, what happened, which report records it. "Your conduct on Tuesday" produces a reply that answers nothing. Set a period and write it into the letter. The law text cited in this article does not fix a period, so choose one that a shift worker can actually use, and confirm your own case with a legal adviser.

Say how the reply may be given: in writing and signed. If the worker cannot write, take the oral statement down as a report, read it back, and have the worker sign that. Hand the request over against signature, or send it by a method that proves delivery. Note the date and the hour in the file.

If no reply arrives, record that the period passed and no defense was given. Do not write the defense for the worker, and do not paraphrase what they might have said. The reply is filed with the request, and the warning that follows refers to both by date.

When does the law require hearing the worker first?#

Article 19 of Labour Law No. 4857 says an indefinite-term contract may not be terminated for reasons related to the worker's conduct or performance without taking the worker's defense, while the employer's right to terminate under Article 25(II) is reserved, according to the consolidated text of the law on the Presidency's Legislation Information System (2026).

Article 19 carries two separate duties: written notice stating the reason clearly and precisely, and the defense step. Doing one and skipping the other leaves the file short. Article 20 sets the route after a dismissal: the worker applies to a mediator within one month of receiving the notice, and if mediation ends without agreement, a case may be filed at the labour court within two weeks of the final mediation record. The employer carries the burden of proving a valid reason, which is why the file is the employer's evidence.

Article 25(II) allows termination before the end of the contract or without waiting for the notice period in listed conduct cases, including assault on another worker, coming to work drunk, theft, two consecutive unexcused working days, and persisting in not doing assigned duties despite reminders. Article 26 puts a clock on that right: six working days from the day the employer learns of the conduct, and in any case one year from the act, with the one-year limit not applying where the worker gained materially.

Article 38 limits pay cuts to reasons shown in the collective agreement or the employment contract, requires immediate notice with reasons, caps the deduction at two days' wages in a month, and sends the money to a Ministry account within one month, with a separate account kept at the workplace. A pay cut is not a substitute for a warning. Article 75 requires a personnel file for each worker, shown to authorised officials on request. For the wider vocabulary around these duties, see labour law terms a hotel employer meets in the first month.

Hotel cases: a night auditor asleep, a fight, alcohol, a refused task#

Every case needs the same three documents, but the facts to record differ, and one ground, persisting in not doing assigned duties, only works if the earlier reminders are already on paper.

Asleep on night shift: record the hour found, who found them, the state of the desk (lights, key drawer, cash, phone), and what was not done while they slept. If it has happened before, attach the earlier reports rather than describing a habit. A fight between two cooks: take separate reports from each witness instead of one combined narrative, record injuries and whether anyone was sent to a health facility, and give each worker their own defense request.

Alcohol on shift: record what was observable (smell, speech, balance, the hour), who decided to send the person home, and where any medical document is kept. The detail belongs in the file, not in the staff canteen. A refused task: quote the task, the hour it was assigned, who assigned it, and the reminder that followed. Article 25(II) is about persisting despite reminders, so a single refusal does not by itself meet that ground; treat it as a warning case and confirm your own case with a legal adviser. Whether a task was the worker's to do at all depends on the job description, which is why it pays to keep written job descriptions for hotel roles.

A phone on the front desk: record where the phone was, what the worker was doing, and whether a guest was waiting. Leave intent out; the reader can see the facts and draw the conclusion. And one incident, one set of documents: a month of irritation compressed into a single report reads as a decision taken first and documented afterwards.

How do warnings build a file, and where is it kept?#

A warning is worth something only as part of a sequence: report, defense request, reply, warning and proof of delivery, kept together in the worker's personnel file.

The warning names the event, refers by date to the report and the defense, states what is expected from now on, and says what follows a repeat. It is signed and dated by the employer's representative. Date everything. The text cited here sets no fixed shelf life for a warning, so what carries the pattern is the sequence of dated documents, not a claim that the worker has a bad attitude.

Article 75 requires the file and access for authorised officials, and it also requires the employer to use information about the worker honestly and not to disclose what the worker has a legitimate interest in keeping confidential. Keep one file in one place: a copy in the kitchen drawer and the original in HR is two files, and they will disagree. Health notes, alcohol observations and medical documents stay in the file and are shared only with the people who need them for a decision. Confirm your own retention and access rules with a legal adviser.

Papers that stop being useful: written late, unsigned, no witness, conclusions instead of facts, no proof the worker saw it, or a warning whose facts contradict the report it cites.

What to do next#

Pick one case from the past month and write the three documents for it in order: report, defense request, warning. Have a legal adviser read the set before you rely on it. The sequence is the point: a single paper records an event, and only the sequence shows a pattern, which is what Article 20 puts on the employer to prove.