Mutual Termination Agreements under Turkish Labour Law (“MTA’s”)

As a result of the “freedom of contract” principle, which is accepted in all cases except for the special restrictions in Turkish Code of Obligations no. 6098 (“TCO”), the employer and the employee may terminate the employment contract at any time with a mutual agreement. At this point, there is no difference whether the employment contract is indefinite or fixed-term.

The agreement to terminate the employment contract in this way is called "mutual termination agreement" (“MTA”) . However, this way of mutual termination is not regulated in Turkish Labour Law No. 4857. In a jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation, it was explained that “as a result of the freedom of contract, it is also possible to terminate a previously accepted le