In the event that the employer changes the place where the employee started to work as a workplace, the right to terminate the employment contract for just cause may arise. Even if the transfer of the workplace to another place is accepted by the agreement signed between the employee and the employer, the employer does not have unlimited authority.
Even if the employer has the authority to transfer the workplace through the contract between the parties, the employer must use the authority to transfer the workplace in accordance with the rule of honesty regulated in Article 2 of the Turkish Civil Code. In its well-established decisions, the Court of Cassation has emphasised that “Although the employer’s transfer authority arises from the contract, whether this transfer authority is abused or not should be subject to control in terms of arbitrariness and objectivity ’. If the employer changes the place of work and assigns the employee to another place, it must concretely demonstrate the need for the assignment. The employee is not obliged to accept the change made without a need.
In the event that the contract is terminated by the employee for just cause based on the change of workplace, it will be up to the employer to prove that the transfer authorisation was made in accordance with the objective good faith rules.
Changing the workplace of the employee is accepted as a fundamental change in working conditions. According to Article 22 of the Labour Law; “The employer may make a fundamental change in the working conditions arising from the employment contract or the personnel regulations and similar sources annexed to the employment contract or workplace practice only by notifying the employee in writing. Changes not made in accordance with this form and not accepted in writing by the employee within six working days are not binding on the employee.’
NOTIFICATION OBLIGATION
If the employer is going to make a change in the workplace, it must notify the employee in writing. If the notification is not duly made, the employee will not be affected by these conditions. In addition, the employee is not obliged to accept these new conditions. If the employee does not accept this change in writing within 6 days in response to the written notification made by the employer, these conditions will not affect the employee.
In a precedent decision of the 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation; although there is a provision in the employment contract that the employee may be assigned to another workplace, the assignment of the employee in another province is considered as a change against the employee and the employee’s quitting the job based on this is justified termination. (Court of Cassation 9th H.D. 2010/4631 E, 2012/12258 K, 11.04.2012 Date )
Article 24/2-f of the Labour Law No. 4857 regulating the cases of justified termination by the employee stipulates that the employee has the right to terminate the employment contract immediately and for just cause ‘if the working conditions are not applied’. In this case, taking into account the rights granted to the employee by the law, the employee may terminate the employment contract for just cause and immediately.
In this case, the employee will have the right to claim severance pay, wages, premiums, overtime pay, annual leave pay, week holiday pay, national holiday and general holiday pay and similar labour receivables after exercising the right to terminate for just cause.