You may find below some of the recent major developments in the Turkish Labour Law legislation;
Workplace Health and Safety
The Workplace Health and Safety Services Regulation (published on the Official Gazette dated 27 November 2010 and numbered 27768) (the “WHS Regulation”) sets forth the establishment of Workplace Health and Safety (“WHS”) units and principles and procedures of establishment, annulment of licenses, and also duties and authorizations of health and safety units to be established within the workplace by public or private entities. The WHS Regulation encloses workplaces as regulated by the Labour Law (Law No. 4857), where a minimum of fifty employees are employed. According to Article 5 of the WHS Regulation, employers shall establish a WHS unit. These units shall consist of at least one occupational doctor and other health personnel if necessary. Additionally, one occupational safety specialist shall be in a WHS unit in industrial workplaces according to the WHS risk of such work.
Occupational Safety Specialists
The Regulation on Duties, Authorities, Responsibilities and Educations of Occupational Safety Specialists (published on the Official Gazette dated 27 November 2010 and numbered 27768) regulates qualifications, training and certification, duties, authorization and responsibilities of occupational safety specialists. The scope of the regulation includes workplaces and educational institutions that are deemed industrial and where a minimum of fifty employees are employed.
Amendment to the Workplace Suspending Regulation
The Regulation on Suspending Operations and Closing the Workplaces has been amended on 28 October 2010. The amendments include implementation and revoke of decisions on stopping the operations and closing workplaces and procedures to follow in cases of emergency.
Work Permit
As per the recent amendments in the Work Permit related regulations, there are additional requirements to be met for the foreigners such as the minimum investment or capital requirements of the local companies and number of local (Turkish citizen) individual hiring.