We would like to inform you that the Regulation on Emergencies in Workplaces (in Turkish, “İşyerlerinde Acil Durumlar Hakkında Yönetmelikte Değişiklik Yapılmasına Dair Yönetmelik”) has been amended with the publication of the Amendment Regulation (hereinafter referred to as the “Amendment Regulation”) published in the Official Gazette dated 1 October 2021 and numbered 31615.

The employer has an obligation to take certain measures in case of emergency situations, such as to provide information concerning the emergency- evacuation plan, to provide an applicable emergency plan, to assign trained emergency teams and to ensure the presence of suitable emergency equipment in workplace.

According to Article 4 of the Amendment Regulation, the below circumstances have been defined as emergency situations:

According to the Amendment Regulation, it is the employer’s obligation to provide information regarding the emergency, evacuation plan, escape routes, meeting places and emergency teams for following persons:

According to Article 11 of the Amendment Regulations, the employer is obliged to establish emergency teams for the below:

In addition, at least one specially trained and appropriately equipped employee must be assigned as a support staff by the employer, for each extinguishing, rescue and protection team, according to the danger class of the workplace;

In workplaces with less than 10 employees; it is sufficient to appoint at least one specially trained and appropriately equipped employee as a support staff for all the extinguishing, rescue and protection teams, in order to establish contact with national and local institutions and organizations regarding emergencies. The employer must also assign a responsible or several responsible persons of the protection team in order to ensure the necessary coordination between the teams in case of emergency.

Furthermore, appropriate accompaniment measures must be taken in workplaces regarding the elderly, disabled, pregnant employees and children in kindergarten during the evacuation.

According to Article 15, all employees would need to be informed about the extinguishing, rescuing, protection, and first aid teams.

The new hires and the temporary assignees from another employer would also need to be informed about emergency plans and health and safety education.

According to Temporary Article 3, the emergency teams can perform their duties for 6 months following the publication date of this regulation. Within this period, re-assignment of the support members and document updates would need to be done as per Article 11.

As per the newly recruited employees and for those who will work for a temporary period under the subcontractor relationship, in addition to the occupational health and safety trainings, necessary information must be provided on emergency situations.

Our Law Firm remains at your disposal for any further clarifications you may need.