What is a fixed-term employment contract in Türkiye?
A fixed-term employment contract (belirli süreli iş sözleşmesi) is an employment agreement that ends on a set date or on completion of a defined work. Under Article 11 of the Turkish Labour Code (Law No. 4857), it is the exception, not the rule: it must be in writing and requires an objective justification: work of a fixed duration, a specific project, or a similar objective condition. Without one, the contract is treated as indefinite-term from the start.
The chain-contract trap
Renewing fixed-term contracts back to back (“chaining”) without a new essential reason converts the relationship into an indefinite-term contract retroactively. Turkish courts police this strictly, because fixed-term status strips the employee of job-security protections, so employers who roll the same contract every year are usually holding an indefinite contract without knowing it.
What founders get wrong
Startups reach for fixed terms hoping to avoid severance and notice obligations, but the math rarely works: at natural expiry there is no notice pay, yet Court of Cassation case law grants severance pay to fixed-term employees whose contract ends after at least one year in circumstances that would entitle an indefinite-term employee. Early termination without just cause can trigger damages for the remaining term (residual-term wages), which can exceed ordinary exit costs. For genuinely temporary needs: a funded project, a maternity-leave cover: the tool fits; as a default hiring template, it creates risk instead of removing it.
Form requirement and objective reason
A fixed-term employment contract is made in writing; under Article 8 of Law No. 4857, contracts of one year or longer must in any case be in writing. The objective conditions required by Article 11 are not an exhaustive list, but their type is clear: work of a fixed duration, completion of a specific job, or the occurrence of a specific event. Employment tied to the delivery date of a software project, temporary cover for an employee on maternity leave, or a grant-funded research position fall within this scope. A “one-year contract” for the company’s general workforce needs does not count as an objective reason.
Rights of the fixed-term employee (Article 12)
A fixed-term employee may not be treated differently from a comparable indefinite-term employee unless there is a reason justifying the difference. Wages and divisible monetary benefits are paid in proportion to the period worked; where a right depends on a length-of-service condition, the same condition applies. However, because the job-security provisions (Article 18 et seq.) are designed for indefinite-term contracts, a fixed-term employee cannot bring a reinstatement claim when the term expires, and no notice pay arises at expiry.
Early termination and residual-term wages
The contract ends automatically when the agreed term expires. If the employer terminates before the end of the term without just cause, the employee may claim, under Article 438 of the Turkish Code of Obligations (Law No. 6098), the wages they would have earned until the end of the term. Expenses the employee saved because of the termination, and income earned from other work or deliberately forgone, are deducted from that amount. An unjustified termination in the first months of a long fixed-term contract can therefore cost more than notice pay and severance combined under an indefinite-term contract.
Does a fixed-term employee get severance?
Often yes: one year of service plus qualifying end circumstances can found entitlement; assuming “fixed term = no severance” is the single most common employer error.
Can we renew once?
Renewal is possible only with an essential reason justifying it; each renewal needs its own objective basis, and repetition without one collapses the structure into an indefinite contract.
Related: severance pay (kıdem tazminatı).
Sources. Labour Law No. 4857. Statute links open the official consolidated Turkish texts on mevzuat.gov.tr.