In the event that it is determined that the wages of the employees are not reported over the actual wages in the audits to be carried out by the public institutions or in the receivable / determination lawsuits to be filed by the employee,
For each month that the employer pays wages by hand, an administrative fine of two minimum wages will be imposed on the workplace,
If the situation is detected as a result of the audit, the payrolls and the journal kept by the enterprise will be deemed invalid and an administrative fine of half a minimum wage (cannot exceed 12 minimum wages) will be imposed on the workplace for each invalidity,
The “Minimum Wage Support” received by the workplace for the years in which it is determined that the workers are paid by hand will be cancelled and the relevant amounts will be returned to the SSI with legal interest,
The employer will be obliged to pay the underreported premiums and taxes to the relevant institutions together with the delay interest,
After the claim that the wage paid in cash is not paid, it may be possible to re-pay the wage to the employee.
Considering these results, payment of wages by hand causes significant loss of rights for the employee and poses a serious risk for the employer.
In the decision of the 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation dated 11.12.2017 and numbered 2017/7955 Esas 2017/20925 Decision, a precedent decision has been established in this regard. According to this decision;
“From time to time, it is seen that the wages shown in the employment contract or payrolls do not reflect the reality in order to pay less tax or insurance premium in working life. In this case, it is important to determine the actual wage. When there is a suspicion that the wage in the signed payrolls does not reflect the reality considering the issues such as the seniority of the worker, the job title, the work actually performed, the characteristics of the workplace and the wages paid to the peer workers, the witness statements should be taken into consideration and the period of time spent by the worker in the profession, the dates of work in the workplace, the job title and the work actually performed should be reported and the precedent wage should be investigated from the trade unions, relevant workers’ and employers’ organisations and a conclusion should be reached by evaluating all the evidence together.”
It is ‘contrary to the ordinary course of life’ for a skilled worker to work for minimum wage according to the nature of the work
A young man working as a forklift worker in the packaging department of a company in Çifteler and his friends, stating that they received the part of their salaries shown in the insurance base from the bank and the remaining part from the envelope given by the workers in a room at the workplace, filed a lawsuit for determination to the Çifteler Civil Court of First Instance. The local court rejected the lawsuit filed by the employee.
The workers also submitted to the court a CD with the footage of the camera recordings at the workplace regarding the payment of money by hand in envelopes. It was revealed that in the footage of the workers waiting in line in front of the door of a room, it was seen that those leaving the room were holding long thin envelopes.
The 21st Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation reversed the decision of the local court, stating that ‘It is contrary to the ordinary course of life for a qualified and experienced worker to work for minimum wage according to the nature of his work’.
In its decision, the Supreme Court emphasised that it is contrary to the ordinary course of life for a qualified and experienced worker to work with the minimum wage according to the nature of his work, and stated that the documents issued by the employer on the minimum wage can be proved otherwise.
It was reminded that the CD of the images of the camera recordings at the workplace regarding the payment of money by hand in envelopes mentioned in the cases of the same nature was submitted to the file; It was stated that in the images, it was seen that the workers were waiting in line in front of the door of a room and those who came out of the room had thin long envelopes in their hands. In the decision of the Court of Cassation, it was pointed out that the witnesses also stated that there was such a practice at the workplace, and it was stated that the payrolls of the workers were unsigned.
It was noted that the worker, who worked as a forklift worker, was informed in the letter of Eskişehir Chamber of Commerce that those who did the equivalent job in 2007-2010 could receive a wage in the range of 30 percent more than the minimum wage.
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