Background
A state-owned entity hired several contractors under public-procurement agreements to provide armed private-security services at a port. Two security guards employed successively by the contractors obtained judgments for severance pay, notice pay, unpaid wages, annual-leave pay, holiday pay, overtime, and related amounts. As the principal employer, the public entity paid TL 28,053.56 on June 20, 2018, and TL 44,519.26 on August 9, 2019, in enforcement proceedings arising from those judgments.
The public entity then sought reimbursement of the entire TL 72,572.82, with interest, from the contractors jointly and severally. The İstanbul 6th Commercial Court partly granted the claim, allocating TL 6,125.55, TL 3,586.90, and TL 62,854.07 to the three contractors. Two contractors appealed, arguing principally that the claim was time-barred, the public entity bore responsibility for the workers’ claims, the contracts did not displace the equal-sharing rule under Article 167 of the Turkish Code of Obligations, and the calculations and attorney-fee award were erroneous.
The Court’s Holding
The 45th Civil Chamber rejected both appeals on the merits and affirmed the judgment. Although the Labor Act makes a principal employer and subcontractor jointly liable to workers, that protection governs their external liability to employees. Their internal allocation of responsibility is instead determined by the service contracts, tender documents, and general principles of contract law.
The agreements placed responsibility for contractor personnel on the contractors and contained no provision making the public entity ultimately responsible for their employment entitlements. The contractors therefore had to reimburse payments attributable to periods in which they employed the workers. Notice pay and unused annual-leave pay were properly assigned to the final employer, while the remaining claims and related amounts were allocated according to each contractor’s employment period. The limitations defense failed because the contractual reimbursement claim was governed by Article 146 of the Turkish Code of Obligations. The court also upheld the separate attorney-fee allocations and confirmed that the contractors were not necessary co-parties or jointly liable to the public entity.
Key Takeaways
- Statutory joint liability protecting subcontracted workers does not itself determine the ultimate allocation of liability between a principal employer and its contractors.
- Where procurement documents do not make the principal employer responsible for worker entitlements, each contractor may owe full reimbursement for claims attributable to its own employment period.
- Notice pay and unused annual-leave pay may be charged to the final contractor, while severance and other wage-related claims are generally allocated by employment period.
Why It Matters
The decision distinguishes an employee’s right to recover from jointly liable employers from the employers’ contractual rights against one another. Public entities that pay judgments to outsourced workers may recover those sums from the contractors whose personnel generated the liability, subject to the governing procurement documents and the type and timing of each employment claim.
The ruling also clarifies that successive contractors are ordinarily subject to separate monetary awards rather than collective liability in reimbursement litigation. The appellate decision was unanimous and final.