According to our Labor Law, the normal working time per week is determined as 45 hours.
Overtime means the work exceeding 45 hours in the conditions written in the labor law, and working overtime refers to the work done up to 45 hours in cases where the weekly working time is determined below 45 hours.
Accordingly, in a service contract where the weekly working time is determined as 40 hours by contract, the wage per hour is increased by 25% for every hour until the limit of 45 hours per week is reached. Every hour of work is considered overtime after the limit of 45 hours per week has been reached. In accordance with the regulation on overtime work and overtime work pertaining to the labor law, the wage to be paid for each hour of overtime is paid by increasing the amount per hour of the normal working wage by 50%. There is no difference in the calculation between these overtime hours after the end of the work on weekdays or arriving on the weekend.
According to this, the working time of 40 hours is determined by the contract between 9.00 and 17.00 on weekdays. On a weekly basis after the end of the work, the wage per hour for working up to 5 hours is increased by 25%, and for overtimes after 45 hours, the wage per hour is increased by 50%.
In accordance with Article 46 of the Labor Law, workers are given at least 24 hours of uninterrupted rest in a 7-day period, provided that they have worked on the working days determined according to Article 63 before the holiday.
This is called a week break. The law does not specify which day of the week holiday will be. Therefore, it is not mandatory to be Sunday, a desired day can be decided. If the worker has completed the 45-hour working period before the week break, but still works during the week break, the amount per hour of the normal working wage to be paid for each hour of overtime will be paid with an increase by 50%.
In cases where the weekly working time is determined to be less than 45 hours, since the work done up to 45 hours will be considered as overtime, 25% more than normal will be paid for each hour of overtime work. Because in this case, it does not matter in the calculation whether the work is done on weekdays or on weekends. For example, the person came to work during the weekend and worked 8 hours per day. The total working time on weekdays corresponds to 40 hours. Accordingly, the first 5 hours of Saturday will work 25% more than the normal hourly wage, and the remaining 3 hours will be 50% more than the normal hourly wage as overtime wages, as it exceeds 45 hours.
OVERTIME CALCULATING
To explain the calculation of overtime wages with an example, a worker who normally works 8 hours a day and earns 160 TL per day earns 20 TL per hour. If the worker works 40 hours a week with a contract and works 5 days a week and will work on a Saturday;
Since working overtime will be mentioned within 5 hours up to 45 hours, the hourly working wage will increase by 25% to 25 TL per hour and will earn 125 TL,
In the next 3 hours, it will be calculated that the worker will earn 215 TL in total for that day, since the overtime wage will be 30 TL with an hourly increase of 50% and it will be 90 TL in total.
WAGE OF EMPLOYEE WORKING ON HOLIDAYS
General holidays come to the fore on national holidays, New Year’s Day, official and religious holidays. According to the Labor Law, during these holidays, workers are paid the full wage of the day without any work. If the worker does not take a vacation that day, he is also paid a daily wage for each day worked. In other words, the worker working on national holiday is entitled to receive twice his daily wage. In addition, if a working time of 45 hours per week has been completed, he/she receives an overtime wage of 50% per hour, as well as a one-day working wage, which is the holiday wage. Even if it does not work, it will still receive 1 day’s wage. For example, a worker who completed the 45-hour working hour and worked on the 19th of May;
1-) the wage he will normally receive for one day’s work (let it be 160 TL)
2-) due to working in Bayram, plus one more daily wage (+160 TL)
3-) After completing 45 hours, he will receive 50% more than the normal hourly wage (in the example, 50% more than 20 TL will be 30 TL per hour).
If the national holiday or holiday coincides with a weekday and the worker is not working today, the worker is paid one day’s wage. Both the general holiday pay and the weekend holiday pay are not paid together. However, if the worker is working on this day, overtime wages must be paid in addition to the daily wage.
OVERTIME WAGE CASE
As stated in the Labor Law, the sum of overtime hours cannot exceed 270 hours in a year. The claim that it is too much can be proved with a document.
Overtime is usually done without a written contract and documented by the employer. In other words, sometimes the employee works with the verbal request of the employer and They don’t even get overtime pay. For this reason, the workers resort to litigation for the collection of workers’ receivables as of the period they left the job. Overtime wages exceeding 5 years are not paid due to the objection of the other party in the litigation process due to the 5-year statute of limitations.
If there is no payroll and document signed by the employer regarding overtime work in the overtime fee lawsuit to be filed, the workplace entry and exit records, if any, and the building entry and exit records must be used as evidence. Because, although it is proved by the witness that the overtime wage will be paid, relying only on the evidence of the witness without written document, the case law of the Court of Cassation allowed the local court to make an equitable reduction from the overtime wage determined by the court and to reduce the overtime wage calculated by the expert.
For this reason, when filing an overtime wage lawsuit, it should first be investigated whether there is a written document proving that overtime has been worked. Such as camera recordings, recordings of transcripts in card entries. If it is not found, eyewitnesses who worked in the same period should be heard about overtime work.
An overtime wage lawsuit can be filed alone or together with all of the workers’ receivables (such as severance pay, notice indemnity, balance salary, etc.).
