Circular on Remote Work

Dear Business Partner, we have prepared a reminder circular for you regarding Payroll and Legal Processes.

Summary: This circular aims to ensure the protection of employee-employer relations, the adoption of facilitating and protective measures, and to reiterate issues currently on the agenda.

Content: The topic of Remote Work is addressed, and the procedures and principles of remote working are reiterated.

A. Remote Work

Remote worker: An employee who performs all or part of their work remotely.
Remote work: A work relationship based on the principle that the employee performs their duties from home or outside the workplace using technological communication tools, within the work organization established by the employer, and established in written form.

B. Procedures and Principles

• Employment contracts regarding remote work must be made in writing.
• This provision requires that remote work contracts must be made in writing, and the contract may specify whether remote work is full-time or hybrid.
• The contract must include the job description, method of performance, duration and location of the work, wage and payment terms, tools and equipment provided by the employer, obligations regarding their maintenance, employer’s communication with the employee, and general and specific working conditions.

B.1 Jobs That Cannot Be Performed Remotely

Remote work cannot be performed in jobs involving hazardous chemical substances and radioactive materials, the processing or handling of such materials or their waste, or jobs involving exposure to biological agents.

B.2 Transition to Remote Work

A work relationship can be initially established through a remote work agreement, or an existing on-site work relationship can be converted to a remote work agreement by mutual agreement of the employee and employer.

• (1) Provisions related to the employee’s request for remote work are as follows:
  • a) The request must be made in writing.
  • b) The request is evaluated by the employer in accordance with workplace procedures.
  • c) During evaluation, the nature of the job and employee, and other criteria determined by the employer, are considered.
• (3) The evaluation result must be communicated to the employee within thirty days using the same method as the request.
• (4) If the request is accepted, a contract is made in accordance with the specified conditions.
• (5) An employee who has transitioned to remote work may later request to return to on-site work using the same procedure; the employer is to prioritize this request.
• (6) If remote work is applied to the entire or part of the workplace due to compelling reasons specified in legislation, the employee’s request or consent is not required.

C. SSI Perspective

The Social Security Institution has stated that, in addition to the number of working days reported monthly for insured individuals, the number of days worked remotely must also be reported, and has outlined procedures in its general letter on “Remote Work Day Reporting.”

For employees working remotely full-time, national holidays, public holidays, paid leave, and weekly rest days are included in the remote work day count;

For employees working under hybrid contracts that include both on-site and remote work, only the days actually worked remotely will be reported as remote work days.

Example: An employee with 4 weekly rest days per month who works remotely on all business days will have rest days also counted as remote work days, and both premium payment days and remote work days will be reported as 30.

• Example: An employee with 4 weekly rest days per month works 5 business days on-site and the rest remotely. With 4 rest days and 5 on-site workdays, 21 days will be reported as remote work days; premium payment days will be reported as 30.
• Example: An employee with 8 weekly rest days per month works half the business days remotely and half on-site. With 22 business days, and half of them worked remotely, 11 days will be reported as remote work days, and premium payment days will be reported as 30.

D. Administrative Fines

Violations of provisions regarding on-call or remote work are subject to a fine of 1,402 TL (per affected employee).

Best regards,

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