NEWSLETTER-2020-metin

335 LABOR LAW with the notice periods set forth in the Labor Law (termination with notice periods). In addition, the parties include penalty clauses to limit the right of termination in employment contracts. Employment contracts estab- lish a personal relationship between the employee and the employer. Therefore, it is important for the parties to ensure and maintain the trust that the employment contract will not be terminated. Within this scope, the penalty clause provisions included in employment contracts aim to limit the right to terminate the contract by granting a notice period. In terms of fixed-term contracts, the purpose of the penalty clause is to prevent the parties from unjust termination of the contract prior to the anticipated end date. In other words, the main purpose of the parties is to protect the trust of the parties in the performance of the debt in the course of the period prescribed in the contract, and to prevent the termination of the contract unfairly prior to the anticipated term. Aside from the purpose of preventing the termination of the employment contract without just cause for a certain period of time, penalty clauses are included in the employment contracts in order to enable the employer to request the training expenses from the trained employee in the event of non-compliance with the working condi- tions, or in order to provide that the employee complies with the non- competition clause 5 . Although there is no provision in the Labor Law regarding the penalty clauses in employment contracts, Article 420 of the Turkish Code of Obligations numbered 6098 provides that penalty clauses which are solely determined against the employee are invalid. As a matter of fact, in accordance with the principle of “interpretation in favor of the employee” in labor law, it is accepted that a penalty clause is valid when it is agreed to be applied to both Parties and thus, the Court of Cassations’ case law leans also in this direction. As mentioned, above, considering both the employees’ and the employers’ needs and wishes to ensure the continuity of the employ- 5 Canbolat, Prof. Dr. Talat; Erener, Ebru : “Asgari Süreli İş Sözleşmelerinde Cezai Şart” , İş ve Hayat Dergisi, No. 5, 2017, p. 231.