The Court of Cassation Once Again Emphasizes That Weekly Rest Days Cannot Be Counted Against Annual Leave Entitlements
The decision of the 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation dated 3 February 2026 and numbered E. 2025/9525, K. 2026/757 was published in the Official Gazette dated 9 June 2026 and numbered 33275. In this cassation in the interest of law decision, the Court once again emphasized that weekly rest days, national holidays and public holidays falling within the annual paid leave period shall not be counted as part of the annual leave entitlement and that unused annual leave periods must be paid to the employee as wages upon termination of the employment contract.
The key points of the decision are summarised below:
- The Court of Cassation reiterated that, pursuant to Article 59 of Labor Law No. 4857 (the Labor Law), where an employment contract terminates for any reason, remuneration corresponding to unused annual paid leave must be paid to the employee based on the employee’s final wage.
- The decision noted that the burden of proving that annual paid leave has been granted rests with the employer, who must demonstrate this by means of a signed leave record or an equivalent document.
- Referring to the fifth paragraph of Article 56 of the Labor Law, the Court emphasized that weekly rest days, national holidays and public holidays falling within the annual leave period shall not be counted as part of the annual leave entitlement.
- In the case at hand, it was determined that the employee was entitled to a total of 28 days of annual leave and, according to the leave records, had used 28 days of leave. However, the Court held that the four weekly rest days falling within the leave periods used by the employee could not be deducted from the annual leave period.
- Accordingly, the Court concluded that the employee had an outstanding entitlement to four days of annual paid leave that had not actually been used and that payment corresponding to such leave period should be made upon termination of the employment contract.
This decision once again highlights the importance of maintaining annual paid leave records in compliance with applicable legislation and of taking weekly rest days, national holidays and public holidays into account separately when calculating annual leave periods. Failure to do so may give rise to disputes concerning unused annual leave pay and related employment claims.
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