What is The Overtime Duration Under The Labor Law??

Under Article 41 of the Labor Law, overtime is defined, subject to the conditions set out in the law, as work exceeding 45 hours in a week. Where the parties have agreed on a weekly working time below 45 hours (for example, 35 or 40 hours), the hours worked between the agreed period and 45 hours are treated as a separate category — "work at excess hours" — and carry a different premium rate.

Where daily working time exceeds 11 hours, the excess is treated as overtime even if the weekly 45-hour threshold has not been reached. Overtime pay also applies to night work and to certain jobs for which the law caps daily working time at 7.5 hours (for example, certain hazardous industrial work), once that limit is exceeded.

For work exceeding 45 hours per week, the employee is paid at 50% above the normal hourly rate, i.e. at 1.5 times the hourly wage. The calculation generally follows these steps:

• The employee's gross monthly wage is divided by 30 to arrive at the daily wage.
• The daily wage is divided by the normal daily working time to arrive at the hourly wage.
• Each hour of overtime is then paid at 1.5 times this hourly rate (a 50% premium).

Where the weekly working time has been contractually reduced below 45 hours, the hours worked between the agreed period and 45 hours are paid at 1.25 times the hourly wage (a 25% premium) as "work at excess hours." Because the wage figures used in the calculation are updated each year, the calculation should be based on the payroll for the period in which the claim arose, with the current figure confirmed from that payroll. Weekly rest days remain within the 45-hour weekly bracket for this purpose, while annual leave and national and public holidays are excluded from the calculation.

To protect employee health and workplace safety, the Labor Law caps total overtime at 270 hours per year. As a rule, this cap should not be exceeded even with the employee's consent.

While an employer exceeding this cap is not directly subject to an administrative sanction in practice, Court of Cassation decisions have accepted that overtime beyond 270 hours can constitute just cause for the employee to terminate the employment contract. Conversely, contractual clauses stating that up to 270 hours of annual overtime is already included in the wage have also been recognized as valid in certain cases; the validity of such a clause should be assessed on the specific facts.

As a rule, an employee's consent is required before overtime can be assigned; in practice, this consent is obtained in writing through a document commonly referred to as an overtime consent form. An employee cannot be compelled to perform overtime and is not obliged to sign this document.

Written consent obtained once, either at the start of employment or at any point during the employment relationship, remains valid for as long as the employee continues working at the same workplace — separate consent is not required for each instance of overtime. Overtime performed without the employee's consent does not relieve the employer of the obligation to pay for it; the absence of consent is more significant for the employee's right to terminate the contract.

An employee claiming to have worked overtime bears the burden of proving that claim. The main forms of evidence relied upon in practice include:

• Written documents: workplace entry and exit records, timesheets, and internal correspondence or emails.
• Digital records: electronic access card systems, fingerprint or facial recognition logs, and records from vehicle tracking or shift-scheduling software.
• Witness testimony: statements from witnesses familiar with the workplace's working arrangements, where written documents are unavailable or insufficient.
• Payroll records: where overtime pay has already been recorded on a payroll signed without reservation, proving that the employee worked more than what is recorded may require separate written evidence.

Where payrolls are unsigned, bank payment records for the relevant period can also be considered as evidence. To properly meet this burden of proof, employees are generally advised to preserve written and digital records of their working hours wherever possible.

Overtime pay, along with other claims arising from the employment contract, is subject to a five-year statute of limitations under provisions later added to Labor Law No. 4857. This period begins to run from the date the claim falls due, that is, from the period in which the overtime was worked.

The expiry of the limitation period does not extinguish the underlying claim, but if the employer raises a limitation defense, the court may dismiss the time-barred portion of the claim. For this reason, it is worth monitoring overtime claims periodically and asserting them within the applicable period.

Overtime pay can be claimed while the employee is still working; in such cases, a persistent and systematic failure to pay overtime can give the employee grounds to terminate the employment contract for just cause. In practice, however, these claims are most often brought after the employment relationship has ended, together with other employee claims such as severance and notice pay.

Which approach is preferable depends on the employee's willingness to continue working, the conditions at the workplace, and the evidence available. You can find more information on overtime and other employee claims on our İzmir employment lawyer page. Legal support in labor law matters is provided across İzmir, particularly in Karabağlar, Konak, and Buca.

Av. Mehmet Yücesoy

İzmir Attorney & Legal Consultancy