IS IT MANDATORY FOR AN EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT TO BE MADE IN WRITING?
Employment contracts are not subject to any formal requirements. Therefore, contracts may be made in writing, or the content of the employment relationship may be determined by a verbal agreement. However, Labor Law No. 4857 mandates that employment contracts for a fixed term of one year or longer, as well as team contracts, on-call employment contracts, and remote work employment contracts, must be executed in writing. There is no requirement for indefinite-term employment contracts to be in writing. Nevertheless, in cases where a written contract is not prepared, the employer is obliged to provide the employee, within at most two months, with a written document specifying the general and special working conditions, the daily or weekly working time, the base salary and any salary supplements, the salary payment period, the duration of the contract if it is fixed-term, and the provisions that parties must comply with in case of termination. It would not be wrong to say that this provision effectively turns employment contracts into written ones within “two months.” The “written form requirement” stipulated in the law is considered a “requirement of proof” rather than a “requirement of validity” for employment contracts.
