344 NEWSLETTER 2021 The Validity of the Acquittance/Release Agreement Concluded in the Course of the Employment Relationship* Ece Özsü The quittance constitutes one of the means of the extinction of a debt which allows a debtor to discharge a debt in return for a waiver of the creditor’s rights. Generally, in labor law, release agreements are documents that demonstrate that an employee does not have any claims on an indebted employer. These documents should comply with the conditions listed in Article 420/2 of Turkish Code of Obligations numbered 6098 (“TCO”) in order to be valid.1 The Court of Cassation has examined the validity of release agreements drafted while the employment relationship continues. This paper will first give a general outline of this issue by referring to the definition of a release agreement before moving on to a discussion of relevant legislation. The article will also focus on the decisions of the Court of Cassation regarding the validity of release agreements prepared in the course of the employment relationship. Definition and Validity Conditions of the Release Agreement The quittance is a means of terminating a debt. A release agreement is defined as an agreement that fully or partially terminates a debt and thus discharges the debtor from the debt.2 Former Code of Obligations Article numbered 818 and Labor Law numbered 4857 contained no specific provisions with regard to release agreements, even though this agreement is frequently used in labor law practice. Until the TCO entered into force, disputes were resolved according to the precedents of the Court of Cassation. With * Article of November, 2021 1 Süzek, Sarper: İş Hukuku, 11. ed., 2015 p. 797. 2 Eren, Fikret: Borçlar Hukuku Genel Hükümler, 24. ed., 2019, p. 1421.
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