DEDUCTION OF TEMPORARY INCAPACITY ALLOWANCE FROM MONTHLY SALARY

Under Turkish labor law, a monthly-paid (fixed – in Turkish, “maktu”) salary refers to a wage determined as a fixed amount payable for a full month, regardless of the number of days actually worked within that month and regardless of the total days of the related month which may vary from 28-31. In other words, when with the employment agreement and in practice (as proven with monthly payrolls) the employee’s salary is paid by employer for 12 months based on 30 days, we shall state that employee receives a fixed monthly salary.

As described above,for employees remunerated under a fixed monthly salary system, the wage is deemed to accrue on a monthly basis. Accordingly, the employer is, as a rule, obliged to pay the full monthly salary unless a specific and explicit legal ground for deduction exists. Any deduction from the salary of a monthly-paid employee must therefore be expressly authorized by law and limited strictly to the extent permitted by the relevant statutory provision.

One such statutory exception to this general principle is set out in paragraph 2 of Article 48 of Law No. 4857, entitled “Temporary Incapacity for Work,” which provides as follows:
“The temporary incapacity allowance paid by the Social Security Institution for days not worked due to illness shall be deducted from the wages of monthly-paid employees.”

Within the scope of the aforementioned provision, where an employee is unable to perform work due to illness, the temporary incapacity allowance paid by the Social Security Institution (SSI) may be deducted from the employee’s monthly salary.

However, this deduction is strictly limited to the amount actually paid by the SSI as a temporary incapacity allowance. Kindly note that as regulated under Article 18 of the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law No. 5510, temporary incapacity benefits shall be paid daily to insured persons who become unable to work due to a work accident or occupational disease, provided that such inability is based on a medical leave report issued by a physician or health committee authorized by the SSI. The same article also stipulates that, in the event of insured persons covered by sickness insurance becoming unable to work due to illness, the temporary incapacity allowance shall be paid for each day starting from the third day of incapacity, provided that at least ninety days of short-term insurance premiums have been reported in the year preceding the date on which the incapacity began.

The employer is not entitled to reduce the employee’s salary beyond this amount. Consequently, the portion of the employee’s monthly salary that is not covered by the allowance paid by the SSI must be paid in full by the employer.

In light of the foregoing, while the employer may deduct from the employee’s monthly salary the amount corresponding to the temporary incapacity allowance paid by the SSI for days not worked due to illness, the remaining balance of the monthly salary must be fully paid by the employer. Any practice contrary to this principle constitutes a violation of the employee’s statutory wage rights under Turkish labor law.

This interpretation is also fully consistent with the settled case law of the Court of Cassation. In its quite recent decision of the 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation dated 20 October 2025 (Merits No. 2025/6599, Decision No. 2025/8115), the Court reaffirmed that:

• For monthly-paid employees, deductions due to sickness-related absence are strictly limited to the temporary incapacity allowance actually paid by the SSI;
• Employers may not make any additional or excessive deductions beyond the amount of such allowance; and must pay the remaining amount in full to satisfy for the employee the same amount of monthly salary;
• Any reduction exceeding the SSI payment constitutes an unlawful interference with the employee’s wage entitlement.

This decision once again confirms that Article 48/2 of the Labor Law must be interpreted narrowly and in favor of the protection of the employee’s wage.

Accordingly:

• Employers must carefully verify the exact amount of the temporary incapacity allowance paid by the SSI before making any deduction from a monthly salary or alternatively employer, paying the salary in full, may claim from the employee to restitute the amount received from the SSI once it is paid by the related authority to employee’s account;
• Any portion of the monthly salary not compensated by the SSI must be paid in full by the employer; and
• Unlawful deductions may give rise to wage claims, default interest, complaint to legal labor authorities and, depending on the circumstances, other remedies available to the employee under Turkish labor law, including termination of employment agreement with just reason claim, requesting from the employer the seniority indemnity and other possible labor receivables (if any).

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