Fixed-term employment contract

A fixed-term employment contract is one whose duration is defined or tied to the completion of a specific task or the occurrence of a specific event. Turkish law requires it to be made in writing.

Open-ended employment is the rule: a fixed term is permitted only where an objective reason arising from the nature of the work justifies it, such as project-based work or cover for parental leave. A contract concluded without an objective reason, or renewed successively without an essential reason, is deemed open-ended from the start.

The classification has major practical consequences. A genuinely fixed-term contract ends automatically upon expiry, and the employee is in principle not entitled to notice pay or reinstatement protection, whereas reclassification as open-ended opens the door to those protections. Fixed-term employees may not be treated less favourably merely because of the contract type.