In short
Justified termination is spoken of by the serious ground in the statute and by the notice being written concretely. Not every argument is immediate termination. Valid termination and reinstatement are in the article on a reinstatement action. The panic of the day of leaving is under I was dismissed. The calculation of the amount is in how severance pay is calculated and in the calculation tool.
Bringing an employment contract to an end does not mean only that the parties have left the working relation. It often carries the quality of a decision that affects compensation, the debt, reputation, and the later judicial process together. For this reason, even if the concept of “justified termination” is often used in practice, its content is often understood incompletely or wrongly. Especially the thought of writing a single line in the termination notice and of the result arising of its own accord produces a serious dispute.
Justified termination takes as its subject the contract being brought to an end at once because of a serious breach, or because of a state that cannot be borne. Not every harsh argument, or performance problem, reaches the level of justified termination. The assessment should be made within the frame of the concrete event, the density of evidence, and the current legislation. This text is of the nature of general information.
What is justified termination, and in which frame is it assessed?
Justified termination comes up in situations where the worker or the employer cannot be expected to continue the employment relation because of the other party’s conduct. The basic criterion here is the weight of the breach. The more concrete, continuous, and effective the breach is, the more the claim of justified termination strengthens to that extent.
To understand justified termination correctly, this distinction needs to be made clear:
- Justified termination: a claim of ending at once
- Valid termination: a termination assessment made with different criteria in the job-security arrangement
This distinction is of critical importance especially as to a reinstatement action and the results of compensation. A termination built in the wrong category can give birth to a difficulty of proof in the action, and to a risk of compensation.
Grounds of justified termination from the worker’s side
From the worker’s side, justified termination is often shaped around the wage, the working conditions, an attack on personality rights, or breaches of health and safety. Each claim needs to be supported with a document.
Headings often met:
- The wage not being paid at all, or a systematic delay
- A substantial change against the worker in the working conditions
- Insult, threat, or discriminatory conduct at the workplace
- A serious breach of health and safety measures
- A claim of systematic psychological pressure and intimidation
Especially in mobbing claims, an abstract account alone is not enough. E-mail, a message, a witness, a performance report, and health records carry importance. When the worker plans a justified termination, the worker should first gather the set of evidence, and then build the notice text with the concrete events.
Grounds of justified termination from the employer’s side
The employer’s claim of justified termination also requires a high standard of proof in the same way. It is looked for that the worker’s conduct has shaken the basis of the relation of trust at the workplace, or has seriously disturbed the order of work. A simple fall in efficiency, or a temporary mismatch, often does not give birth to a result of justified termination on its own.
Areas that come to the front in practice:
- Acts that seriously shake the relation of trust
- Violence or a serious insult at the workplace
- Intentional harm to the employer’s assets
- A serious breach of the obligation of continuity and loyalty
- Serious discipline cases supported by a defence in accordance with procedure and by a minute
The most frequent mistake from the employer’s side is that the event is not documented enough. If the minute of the day of the event, the witness statement, the camera record, and the defence process are missing, the claim of termination can weaken in the action.
Written notice, and the burden of proof
In justified termination, saying “there was a ground” is not enough on its own. The ground needs to be notified in a concrete and reviewable way. Written notice therefore carries great importance. In the text of the notice, the date of the event, what the event was, which obligation was breached, and why the relation became impossible to continue should be stated openly.
In a strong termination file, these are generally found:
- A summary of the events in date order
- Signed minutes
- Correspondence and official notifications
- A list of witnesses
- Wage and payroll records
- The request for a defence, and the replies (as to the employer’s termination)
The burden of proof can change between the parties according to the nature of the dispute. The claiming party remaining without evidence often gives birth to a result against that party. For this reason the preparation before the termination is not less important than the action after the termination.
Severance, notice pay, and the other results
The most important dimension in practice of the argument of justified termination is the results of compensation. Who made the termination, whether the ground of termination was found justified by the court, and the period of work are assessed together.
Severance pay
In a justified termination made by the worker, if the ground is accepted at the statutory level, severance pay can come up. If the employer’s justified termination is accepted, the worker’s severance claim can be affected. It is not correct to expect an automatic result in every file. The calculation of severance pay also requires a technical calculation.
Notice pay
Because there is a logic of ending at once in justified termination, the assessment of notice pay differs. In a step characterised as wrongful termination, a burden of notice pay can arise. For this reason the assumption that the risk of notice pay has disappeared at the moment the word “justified” is written in the notice is not correct.
The effect of reinstatement
If the employer’s termination is not accepted as justified, and if the conditions of job security exist, the reinstatement process can come up. For this reason the correctness of the termination text carries importance not only as to compensation, but also as to the possibility of return to work.
Management of time, and the effect of delay
Staying silent for a long time after the event that is the basis of the justified termination is learned can create an argument in the use of the right of termination. The nature of the event, its continuity, and the date it was learned are important in the assessment of time. In practice the delay can be interpreted as “continuing the contract was already possible.”
A safe approach in the management of time:
- Recording it as soon as the event is learned
- Not delaying the steps of collecting evidence
- Making the ground of termination concrete
- Making the notice in a written and open way
- Planning the mediation and action calendar at the same time, if needed
This planning is important in all judicial districts, including Ankara. The local volume can affect the calendar. It does not change the criterion of justified termination.
Mistakes often made
The mistakes the parties fall into most in justified-termination files are these:
- Raising a general claim without documenting the event
- Not writing the ground openly in the notice
- Leaving the termination text weak with the thought “we will tell it in the action later”
- Mixing the results of severance, notice pay, and reinstatement
- Delaying the collection of evidence in claims of mobbing or of a wage breach
- Leaving the items uncertain at the mediation stage
These mistakes increase the risks relating to procedure and to the merits in the action. Especially termination warnings of a single sentence reduce the persuasive power of the file even if the just ground is strong.
The assessment in the Ankara context
The volume of employment disputes in Ankara can have an effect on the file calendar and on the intervals of hearings. The criteria of justified termination do not change according to local practice. The basic determinant is again the weight of the event, the parties’ conduct, and the structure of the evidence.
The practical suggestion at the local level is to complete the evidence folder, rather than waiting after the termination, and to conduct the mediation and action steps inside the same plan. Especially in large workplaces, because communication records can be lost quickly, the safety of the documents should be secured early.
The relation of a release and the termination
After the employment contract is brought to an end for a just reason, an argument of a release sometimes comes up. A release can mean a waiver of particular debt items. The legal conditions of the validity of a release are subject to strict rules as to the date of signature and the content.
Especially releases signed under the pressure of termination, or whose content is uncertain, can be the subject of an objection later. For this reason, in files where a justified-termination decision was given, care is needed in the process of negotiating the release. The scope, the payment, and the list of waiver need to be written clearly.
From the worker’s side: before the release is signed, understanding the scope, confirming that all the debts were received, and making uncertain expressions clear are important. From the employer’s side: the text needs to be written completely and openly, and the payment needs to have been documented.
Additional headings to be careful of after the termination
Some critical headings need to be followed after the justified-termination decision is applied as well. When these steps are neglected, the results of a justified process may not come about as wanted.
From the worker’s side: after the termination notice is made, it is important that the debt items be claimed within a particular period. Documents such as the payroll, the payment, the date of the notice, and the release should be kept with care. The mediation process should be approached with the necessary preparation, and it should be shown that the claims that were written are realistic.
From the employer’s side: whether the termination was conducted in accordance with the workplace procedure and with the defence process should be checked. All the minutes, the correspondence, and the digital records should be kept. At the trial stage, access to the witness and to the document should be secured.
If these steps are skipped after the termination, the just ground may not be set out enough at the court stage.
Mediation in justified termination, and the resolution of the dispute
After the application of the justified-termination decision, the possibility of a settlement between the parties should also be assessed. In files that can come up within the scope of mandatory mediation, being prepared for mediation both reduces the risk of an action and can speed the resolution process.
That the list of claims to be submitted in the mediation process, and the evidence, were prepared in advance also strengthens the content of the minute. For more detailed information on mediation and the management of the minute in employment-law files, the article on the final mediation minute can be read.
From where the termination notice is read
The termination notice, the minute, and the payroll are read side by side. The notice period is not written into this text. Not every argument is counted as immediate termination. The office in Çankaya does not choose the competent court.
Conclusion
Justified termination is spoken of by the event being written in the notice and by the evidence standing. The sentence “I am in the right” does not give birth to a result. The worker’s leaving is under I was dismissed. The signature is in the article on a release. The severance amount is not memorised. The payroll and the kind of termination are read. The notice period is not written without looking at the text of the notice. The frame sits on the employment law page. The basis is the provisions of the Labour Act No. 4857.