Termination of Employment Agreements Due To Insufficient Performance

Termination of employment must be considered as a last resort under any circumstance, employers are obliged to make a sincere effort not to terminate employment agreements. This rule is called "ultima ratio" principle and governs the entirety of Turkish labor law.

Pursuant to Article 18 of the Labor Law, insufficient performance is among valid reasons for termination. Although what constitutes insufficient performance is not defined within the Labor Law, it can be understood from Court of Appeals' decisions.^[1]

As per the High Court of Appeals' precedents, there is insufficient performance where, for instance, an employee's performance is lower than the performance of the employees who undertake the same or similar works, or where an employee's concentration is lower than expected, or the employee fails to improve his/her abilities or knowledge, suffers from a lack of adaptation or a specific kind of sickness of the employee's keeps him/her from working constantly