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New Remote Working Legislation Around the World [Updated]

With the rise of technology, work from home has been a steadily growing trend for many years. Remote working has exploded since Spring 2020 with quarantines, workplace closures, and lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, at least for jobs and industries that do not always require workers to be on-site.

This abrupt, worldwide shift to remote work has sparked new logistical and structural legal challenges that have warranted many countries to pass teleworking legislation, some of which are summarized in this article.

New teleworking legislation varies widely across countries. While some countries introduced their first teleworking general legal framework, other countries passed more detailed measures. This article will only cover permanent teleworking legislation that has entered into effect since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. Temporary COVID-19 related measures, as well as proposed legislation not yet passed as of the publication of this article will not be addressed.

Turkey eliminates retirement age requirement [updated]

Less than six months before the Turkish presidential election, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan recently announced in a press conference that the minimum age requirement for retirement (age 58 for women and age 60 for men) will be eliminated. This change allows more than 2 million workers to retire immediately.

The Turkish government plans to introduce and approve legislation on early retirement without meeting the age requirement in the coming weeks.

Turkey amends Labor Act

Amendments to the Labor Act increased both the minimum wage and the severance payment rates. The gross monthly minimum wage rate for 2019 increased from TRY 2,029.50 to TRY 2,558.40. The new rate applies to all industries except for the […]

Turkey amends tax exemption of mutual termination agreements

Amendments to the income tax law clarified that mutual termination agreements should benefit from income tax exemption within the limit of the mandatory severance payments amount to which the employee is entitled on termination. The exceeding amount should not benefit […]

Turkey change meal card plans

Under new regulations that came into force 22 May 2018, meal cards entities can no longer charge more than 6 percent commission to retail businesses or make any discounts to the employers they deal with. Payments by meal card entities […]