Reimbursement Of Training Costs Under Turkish Law

Introduction

Employers provide training to their employees both to improve the quality of their workforce and to ensure that the investment made in such training benefits the employment relationship for a certain period of time. For this reason, contractual provisions under which an employee undertakes to remain employed for a certain period after receiving training and, if they leave before the expiry of that period, to reimburse all or part of the training costs are frequently encountered in practice.

As a rule, such provisions are not prohibited under Turkish law. However, their validity is assessed not by reference to the wording used in the contract, but by reference to the economic function of the provision and its effect on the employee. Training costs that were actually incurred by the employer, can be documented, and provide the employee with professional qualifications may be reclaimed under certain conditions. By contrast, provisions that effectively prevent the employee