How is annual leave calculated under Turkish Labour Law articles 53 and 56? Seniority and age rules, splitting, public holidays, half-day eves and tracking.
Annual leave is one of the topics employees ask about most and HR teams most often get wrong. “How many days do I have left?”, “Does the holiday eve count?”, “Can I split my leave?” — the same questions come back every year. Turkish Labour Law No. 4857 answers them clearly; the hard part is applying those rules consistently across hundreds of people with different start dates, ages and calendars.
This guide covers the core rules for calculating annual leave in Türkiye in 2026, the points that are most often misapplied, and how to move the whole process out of spreadsheets into a digital workflow.
Article 53: who is entitled, and to how much?
Employees who have worked at least one year with the employer, including the probation period, are entitled to paid annual leave. The minimum duration depends on length of service:
| Length of service | Minimum annual leave |
|---|---|
| 1 to 5 years (5 included) | 14 days |
| More than 5, less than 15 years | 20 days |
| 15 years or more | 26 days |
Age matters too: employees aged 18 or younger and those aged 50 or older must receive at least 20 days. These are minimums — employment or collective agreements can increase them, never reduce them.
Worked examples
- A 30-year-old completing their third year: 14 days.
- An employee completing their seventh year: 20 days.
- A 52-year-old completing their second year: at least 20 days because of the age rule.
- An employee completing their sixteenth year: 26 days.
Article 56: using and splitting leave
As a rule, the employer cannot split annual leave. By mutual agreement, however, it can be taken in up to three parts, provided one part is at least 10 days. Leave chopped into two-day pieces all year can breach this rule, so approvers should check that at least one block reaches 10 days.
Weekly rest days and public holidays don’t count
Weekly rest days, national holidays and public holidays that fall within the leave period are not deducted from annual leave. A week off that covers a religious holiday should not consume those holiday days from the balance.
Half-day eves
Religious holiday eves and 28 October are half-day holidays, so only half a day should be deducted for leave taken on them. If the calendar doesn’t know about these days, the math quietly goes wrong.
Accrual, timing and pay
Entitlement arises each time a full year of service is completed, and the next year’s days are added when the next year is completed. When leave is actually taken is agreed by weighing the operational needs of the workplace against the employee’s request, which is why a leave plan at the start of the year protects both business continuity and people’s right to rest.
Travel days and other details
An employee who spends their leave somewhere other than where the workplace is located must, on request and with proof, be given up to four days of unpaid travel leave in total. And when an employment contract ends for any reason, pay for unused annual leave must be settled. Both points show that accurate balances aren’t only a planning issue — they have a financial side too.
Common mistakes
- Missing seniority thresholds: someone passes five years and still shows 14 days.
- Forgetting the age rule: employees over 50 get at least 20 days regardless of seniority.
- Deducting public holidays: calendar days and working days get mixed up.
- Losing carried-over days: previous balances never make it into the new year.
- Overlapping leave: half a team books the same week and nobody notices until too late.
Step-by-step checklist
- Record each employee’s start date and date of birth accurately.
- Maintain a company calendar with public holidays, company-specific days and half-day eves.
- Define leave types and whether each one deducts from the balance.
- Record carry-overs and manual adjustments with a reason.
- Agree the approval chain: line managers, plus HR where needed.
- Check the team calendar for overlaps before approving.
How HibritİK handles it
HibritİK Leave Management builds these rules into everyday work:
- Leave types with colour, balance deduction, paid/unpaid, half-day use, required attachments, working vs calendar days and a maximum per request.
- Entitlements by seniority and age following article 53, with carry-over and manual adjustments.
- Company calendar with public holidays, company days and half-day eves.
- Multi-step approval through the department tree, an optional HR step and an overlap check.
- Team calendar and reports: leave cost report, request and balance lists exported to Excel, and a printable leave form.
Employees can request leave on the web or in the iOS and Android apps and see their balance at any time. For the bigger picture, read our HR digitalisation guide, and for extra hours see overtime tracking.
Set the rules up once, correctly
The calculation itself isn’t hard; doing it right for every person every year is. Once the rules live in the system, HR can spend its time on planning instead of arithmetic. Start your 14-day free trial and try it with your own leave policy.
Note: this article is general information. Legislation and its interpretation can change, so please confirm the details for your situation with an employment law professional or your accountant.