Radical Change In The Labor Law Dated 14.07.2025: Flexible Week Holiday Period Has Started In The Tourism Sector! 14 July 2025

Pre-change status;

Prior to  the amendment, it was obligatory to give employees at least 24 hours of uninterrupted week holiday every 7 days, regardless of any sector, job or workplace. In the Labor law, it is stated that the employee will receive the full wage of that week holiday without being compensated for the work. However, although it is not clearly regulated in the law how the employee working on the week holiday will be paid, the gap in this area has been filled by judicial decisions, and in accordance with the precedent decisions, the employee working on the week holiday should be paid an additional 1 day's wage for working, in addition to the 1-day wage she/he will be entitled to even if he does not work. In addition, since the employee has completed the agreed working time of the relevant week before the week holiday, it is accepted that the wage of the work on the week holiyday should be paid to the employee with a 50% increase, since this work on the week holiday will also be overtime.
 

New Regulation;
 

With Article 9 of Law No. 7553, published in the Official Gazette on July 14, 2025, the following provision has been added to Article 46 of the Labor Law:

"However, the week holiday earned by the employees working in accommodation facilities for which a tourism operation certificate has been issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism are entitled within the scope of this paragraph, can be used within four days following the day on which the employee is entitled, with the written request or approval of the employee. In this case, the part of the work done by the employee on the weekly holiday to which she/he is entitled, up to the normal working time per day, shall not be taken into account in the calculation of overtime. The employee may withdraw his/her consent by notifying the employer in writing thirty days in advance."
 

What does this mean?
 

First of all, it is clearly stated in the article that the new regulation will be valid for employees working in accommodation facilities that have received an operating license from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and it is seen that the flexible weekend application is limited to the tourism sector. In addition, with the change;
 

• For the employees working in the relevant workplaces, it has become possible to use these rights within 4 days following when they are entitled a weekly holiday, and thus to work continuously for up to 10 days.
• For the flexible weekly holiday, the employee must give a written request or approval. In other words, it is not possible for the employer to unilaterally apply the flexible weekly holiday.
• Employees have been given the opportunity to withdraw their consent by notifying them in writing thirty days in advance. This regulation of the article means that once approval is given, this approval will be valid for the entire working period, in other words, it is not necessary to obtain separate approval for each week holiday.
• It is clearly stated that when the employee who works in the relevant workplaces and approves the flexible weekly holiday, works on the weekly holiday, only the hours of this work exceeding the daily working time will be considered as overtime. For example, if an employee with a daily working time of 7.5 hours works 9 hours on the weekly holiday only 1.5 hours of this work will be taken into account in the overtime calculation.
   

Another amendment related to the Labor Law introduced by Law No. 7553, published on July 14, 2025, concerns administrative fines. In this context, prior to the amendment, administrative fines were imposed by the Regional Directorates of Labor and Social Security, except for certain exceptions. However, it is now regulated that all types of administrative fines will be imposed by the Provincial Directorates of the Labor and Employment Agency.