Court of Cassation: Statute of limitations for unpaid leave is 5 years, not 10

The Court of Cassation's 9th Civil Chamber has decided: the statute of limitations for unpaid annual leave compensation is five years from the date the employee left their job.

According to the ruling, the Chamber determined that the five-year period stipulated by Law No. 7036 on Labor Courts, which entered into force in 2017, would also apply retroactively to the period before this law — that is, from 2012 to 2017, the period between the entry into force of the Turkish Civil Code (Law No. 6098) and 2017. The 9th Chamber, which merged with the former 22nd Civil Chamber, re-evaluated prior decisions in this direction.

The practical significance of the ruling is substantial: Previously, many workers sought unpaid leave compensation from former employers based on the Turkish Civil Code's general ten-year statute of limitations. Now such claims will not be upheld in court for employees whose employment contracts ended more than five years ago.

In the case that gave rise to this ruling, a worker who had been employed at a workplace for 11 years demanded compensation for unused annual leave after leaving; the Chamber applied the five-year limit for the relevant period.

This interpretation by the Court of Cassation regarding the pre-2017 period is being formally established with this clarity for the first time; millions of former workers with pending similar compensation cases or considering filing them must recalculate their statute of limitations.