GENERAL INFORMATION REGARDING THE SHORT-WORK

eco-nomic problems of the whole world, has some negative conse-quences for the individual, economic and social. All countries apply different economic policies and employment policies to reduce unemployment. Employment policies are divided into active and passive policies according to their functions. While active employment policies make an effort to ensure the conti-nuity of the person in working life, passive employment policies try to reduce the costs of the negative situation arising from unemployment. Short work is an important employment policy tool in combating unemployment.

With the emergence of an economic crisis or a force ma-jeure, both financial and moral support is provided to the em-ployer who has difficulty in paying wages, more importantly, the worker can be given a part of the wage that is reduced or unpaid, and the risk of becoming unemployed is eliminated for a certain period of time.

According to the Regulation on Short Work and Short Work Allowance; if certain conditions are met and as “not to exceed three months”; it is possible to benefit from the short-time work allowance provided that the working short-time applied in the workplace is temporarily reduced by at least one-third of the whole or part of the work or the activity is stopped completely or partially for at least four weeks without the condition of con-tinuity.

It is a known fact that periods of economic hardship reveal new solution needs in employee-employer relations. One of

these solutions is the transition to short work in the workplace and giving the workers short-time work allowance.

Worker's approval is not required prior to the short work application. There is no doubt that there will be a loss of wages for the worker. However, short work practice is a special situa-tion arising from the Law and realized with a decision taken by the administrative authorities. According to the decision of the Turkish Supreme Court 9^th Law Branch, dated 8.7.2013 and numbered 2011/26182 E, 2013/20765 K., the practice of short work is not considered a fundamental change in working condi-tions and does not give the employee a rightful termination op-portunity. However, in the decision of the Turkish Supreme Court 22^nd Law Branch dated 5.12.2012 and numbered 2012/4892 E, 2012/27269 K., with a contrary opinion, it was concluded that short-time working means a fundamental change in working conditions due to the loss of wages and that the worker has the right to terminate.

However, the predominant view of the jurisdiction and the doctrine that we agree with is that the employee’s approval is not required before the short-working practice, short work ap-plication cannot be counted as a fundamental change in the working conditions and that it will not give the employee a rightful termination opportunity.

As a result of economic crises or emerging force majeure, the income losses of short-term working employees are partially being covered by unemployment insurance with short-time work allowance under certain conditions. Thus, employers who have difficulties in paying their wages due to the economic

cri-sis are provided with support to overcome the cricri-sis without laying off workers, and the employees are being protected from the risk of becoming unemployed.

The President of the Republic of Turkey is authorized to ex-tend the duration of the short-time work allowance up to six months and to determine whether it will be deducted from the total entitlement period of unemployment benefit or not.

The employee who will work less or not at all due to short work will try to compensate for the wage loss by receiving the

"short work allowance" from the unemployment insurance.

Economic difficulties arising in the national or international economy are the situations that seriously affect and shake the country's economy and therefore the workplace. According to this;

• The term “general economic crisis” refers to situations in which the events occurring in the national or international economy seriously affect the country's economy and thus the workplace,

• The term “regional crisis” refers to situations where busi-nesses operating in a particular province or region are seri-ously affected and shaken economically due to national or international events,

• The term “sectoral crisis” refers to situations in which the sectors directly affected by the events occurring in the na-tional or internana-tional economy and the workplaces in other sectors related to these are seriously shaken,

• The term “compelling reason” refers to events such as earthquake, fire, flooding, ids, epidemics and similar occur-rences which are not caused by the employer's own man-agement and administration, which cannot be predicted, which cannot be eliminated as a result, resulting from ex-ternal effects, resulting in a temporary reduction of working time or a complete or partial cessation of the activity.

In order to benefit from the short work application, the ap-plication must be made directly by the employer to the Turkish Labour and Employment Agency with its justifications. Accord-ingly, if at least four weeks of coverage short work decision is being taken by the employer, this has to be notified General Directorate of the Turkish Labour and Employment Agency, and, if the workplace is a part of collective bargaining, to the authorised trade union.

The short-time work allowance is paid to the worker on a monthly basis at the end of each month. Short work allowance cannot be foreclosed or transferred or assigned to anyone other than alimony debts.

In case of short work, short work allowance is paid from the Unemployment Insurance Fund. In order for the employee to be entitled to short-time work allowance, he/she must fulfil the conditions of entitlement to unemployment insurance, excluding the termination of the service contract. The duration of the short work allowance is up to the short working period provided that it does not exceed three months, and the duration of the allow-ance cannot exceed the period of the unemployment benefit deserved.

In order to be entitled to short work allowance, the condi-tions for qualifying unemployment allowance must be fulfilled.

In order for the employees to benefit from the short work allowance;

a) The employer's request for short work is approved by the Ministry,

b) The employee is entitled to unemployment allowance in terms of working hours and unemployment insurance premium payment days in accordance with the Article 50 of the Act No.

4447, on the commencement of short work, c) Must apply for short work allowance.

Daily short work allowance to be given to employees who meet the conditions is the sixty percent of the daily average gross earning calculated by taking into account the earnings of the insured for the last twelve months. However, the amount of short-time work allowance calculated in this way cannot exceed one-hundred-and-fifty percent of the gross amount of the monthly minimum wage applied for workers older than 16 years, according to the Article 39 of Act No. 4857.

Employers will make the application for short work with the relevant application form and the attached name list will be made by e-mail to the relevant Turkish Labour and Employment Agency local unit without going to the institution. Separate ap-plication is required for each Social Security Institution (SSI) workplace number. The application form must be signed by an authorized person listed in the signature circular. In terms of showing the impact of Covid-19 on the business, it is

appropri-ate to take the decision of the Board of Directors of the Com-pany and also to scan the documents regarding the postpone-ment or cancellation of the order and attach it to the e-mail.

It would be appropriate to state in the decision of the Work-place Board of Directors that “the activity has been stopped/reduced within the scope of combating Covid-19 and health measures in the workplace”.

The employer who requests a short work on the grounds that it workplace is adversely affected by the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic can apply to Turkish Labour and Em-ployment Agency unit with the Short Work Request Form with the relevant evidences and the list containing the information about the employees to make short work. The application is to be made by sending an e-mail to the e-mail address of the Agency unit to which the workplace is affiliated with. Employ-ers can apply for short work by preparing the Short Work Re-quest Form and a list containing information about the workers to be employed for short work due to general economic, sec-toral, regional crisis or compelling reasons.

Applications for short work are made by employers on be-half of employees. Workers cannot request short work. Retired employees who are subject to social security support premium cannot benefit from short work allowance and cannot benefit from short work application.

In order for the applications to be concluded quickly through the document without going to the workplace, it is im-portant to add the documents that constitute the basis for the negative effects of the coronavirus. If necessary, additional

documents can be requested by contacting the employer. Em-ployers will be notified of the receipt of the application in the same way as soon as possible and the applications will be sent to the Guidance and Inspection Department in order to deter-mine the eligibility.

In accordance with the decisions taken by the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services, Guidance and Inspection Presidency and in-line with the Covid-19 Short Work Imple-mentation Decision to be made by the Turkish Labour and Em-ployment Agency Board of Directors, the eligibility inspections by the Labour Inspectors shall be made without the necessity to go to the site. It will only be carried out in the Group Presiden-cies over the relevant application documents and attachments and without issuing a determination report.

With the regulation made by Law No. 7244, short-time working allowance will be paid without waiting for eligibility examination. However, on the other hand, since the conformity reviews are carried out by Labour Inspectors regardless of the payment, the information and documents requested by the la-bour inspectors should be submitted/provided.

In order to benefit from the short work application made due to the compelling reason originating from the new coronavi-rus (Covid-19), with the regulation made by the Law numbered 7226, the Article 25 of the Labour Code No.4857 employers should not be dismissed by the employer, except for the reasons included in the item (II) of the first paragraph of the article.

Since the employee's obligation to work and the employer's wage debt are suspended during the short working period, it is

not possible to gain entitlement to social benefits arising from individual or collective labour agreements for this period, as the only payment is made by the Turkish Labour and Employment Agency.

According to the decision of the 9^th Civil Chamber of the Turkish Supreme Court dated 12.12.2018 and numbered 2018/9974 E, 2018/22979 K; since the employee's obligation to work and the employer's debt to pay wages are suspended in the short working period, it is not possible to be entitled to social benefits arising from the collective labour agreement for this period, as the only payment is made by the institution.

Kısa Çalışma Talep Formu

GENEL AÇIKLAMA

4447 sayılı İşsizlik Sigortası Kanununun Ek 2’nci maddesinde yer alan kısa çalışma uygulaması; genel ekonomik, sektörel veya bölgesel bir kriz ya da zorlayıcı sebeplerle işyerinde çalışma süresinin önemli ölçüde azaltılması veya durdurulması halinde başvurula-cak, istihdamın korunmasına yönelik bir uygulamadır.

Kısa çalışma, çalışanların çalıştırılamadıkları süre için, işçilere yapılan bir ödemedir.

Bu dönemde çalışanların yalnızca genel sağlık sigortası primleri ödenmektedir.

4447 sayılı Kanun ile “Kısa Çalışma ve Kısa Çalışma Ödeneği Hakkında Yönetmelik”

hükümleri çerçevesinde;

1. Kurumca belirlenen formatta hazırlanan kısa çalışma yaptırılacak işçilere ilişkin bilgileri içeren listeyi (Ek-1: Kısa Çalışma Uygulanacak İşçi Listesi) bu dilekçe ekinde gönderdiğimi/teslim ettiğimi

2. İşyerimde uygulanacak kısa çalışmaya ilişkin uygunluk tespiti sürecinde talep edi-len/edilecek bilgi ve belgeleri Aile, Çalışma ve Sosyal Hizmetler Bakanlığı İş Müfet-tişlerine göndereceğimi/teslim edeceğimi,

3. Kısa çalışma ödeneğinden yararlanan işçilerin çalışma sürelerine ait kayıtları tutaca-ğımı ve istenilmesi halinde yetkililere ibraz edeceğimi,

4. Uygunluk tespiti tamamlandıktan sonra, kısa çalışma uygulanacak işçi listesinin değiştirilmesine ve/veya işyerinde uygulanan kısa çalışma süresinin arttırılmasına yö-nelik taleplerimin, yeni başvuru olarak değerlendirileceğini,

5. İstenilen bilgi, belge ve kayıtları belirtilen sürede vermediğim takdirde 4857 sayılı Kanunun 92’nci maddesi uyarınca idari para cezası uygulanacağını,

6. Kısa çalışma yapan işçinin çalışılmayan hafta tatili, ulusal bayram ve genel tatil günlerine ilişkin ücret ve kısa çalışma ödeneği miktarının, kısa çalışma yapılan süreyle orantılı olarak işveren ve Kurum tarafından ödeneceğini,

7. Zorlayıcı sebep gerekçesiyle kısa çalışma uygulamalarında Kurum tarafından yapıla-cak ödemelerin 4857 sayılı İş Kanununun 24 üncü maddesinin (III) numaralı bendinde ve 40’ıncı maddesinde öngörülen bir haftalık süreden sonra başlayacağını, bu döneme ilişkin ücretin işverene ait olduğunu,

8. Uygunluk tespiti sonucu tarafıma bildirilen kısa çalışma oranı üzerinde kısa çalışma ödemesi talep etmeyeceğimi,

9. Uygunluk tespitine konu olan toplam çalışan sayısının değişmesi (işçi giriş/çıkışı) halinde gerekçesi ile birlikte 10 gün içinde bildireceğimi,

10. Kısa çalışma inceleme sonucunu; işyerinde işçilerin görebileceği bir yerde ilan edece-ğimi ve varsa toplu iş sözleşmesine taraf işçi sendikasına bildireceedece-ğimi, ilan yoluyla işçilere duyuru yapamadığım durumlarda kısa çalışmaya tabi işçilere yazılı bildirim yapacağımı,

11. Kısa çalışma ödeneği alanların yaşlılık aylığı almaya başlaması, herhangi bir sebeple silahaltına alınması veya herhangi bir kanundan doğan çalışma ödevi nedeniyle işin-den ayrılması durumunu veya sağlık raporunun başlama ve bitiş tarihlerini Kuruma bildireceğimi,

12. Normal faaliyete başlamaya karar vermem halinde durumu; Kurum birimine, varsa toplu iş sözleşmesi tarafı işçi sendikasına ve işçilere altı (6) işgünü önce yazılı olarak bildireceğimi,

13. İşyerinin faaliyet alanının belirlenmesinde Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu (SGK) kayıtları-nın esas alınacağını,

14. Kısa çalışma uygulanan işçiler adına SGK Aylık Prim ve Hizmet Belgesi ile eksik gün gerekçesinin

“18-Kısa Çalışma Ödeneği” olarak bildireceğimi,

15. Kuruma yapacağım eksik ve/veya hatalı bildirimimden kaynaklanan fazla ödemeleri yasal faiziyle birlikte ödeyeceğimi,

Kabul ve taahhüt ederim.

İşveren Adı Soyadı:

Kaşe ve İmza:

Tarih: .../.../...

Kısa Çalışma Uygulanacak İşçi Listesi