SUMMARY: Teachers working in private education institutions should also be paid an annual “school year preparation allowance” by their employers.

9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation

E: 2012/33276 K: 2013/8117 T: 07/03/2013

The plaintiff employee claimed that he justifiably terminated his employment contract because he was not paid the allowance for preparation for the academic year and demanded the aforementioned allowance with one percent more per day and severance pay.

The court accepted the education preparation allowance and severance pay.

The defendant's counsel appealed the decision within the legal period.

In the reversal decision given by our Chamber, it was accepted that the plaintiff worker was not entitled to the said allowance on the grounds that the preparation allowance for the academic year was specific to the teachers working within the scope of the Civil Servants Law No. 657, and that this allowance was not regulated in the Law No. 625 and Law No. 5580, and it was explained that both of the two requests ruled by the court should be rejected.

Article 33 of the repealed Law No. 625 on Private Education Institutions stipulates that “Those who serve as administrators and provide education and training services in private schools cannot be paid less than the salaries paid in equivalent public schools according to their seniority (except for pensioners) and additional payments within the scope of social assistance. Supplementary payments within the scope of social assistance shall be paid to private school teachers and personnel equivalent to the rights provided to public school teachers and personnel by budget laws. No tax is deducted from the additional payments within the scope of social assistance.” Article 9 of the Law No. 5580 on Private Education Institutions has the same provision.

Additional Article 32 of the Civil Servants Law No. 657 reads as follows: “Those who are employed in positions with the title of teacher included in the Education and Training Services Class and who actually teach (including primary and school principals and their assistants, teachers working in prison schools, administrators, education specialists and assistant education specialists (Repealed phrase: 13/06/2010-5984 S.K/mad.4)) shall be paid a preparation allowance for the academic year in an amount to be determined by the Council of Ministers on the date to be determined by the Minister of National Education within the month in which the academic year begins, for once in each academic year.

This allowance is not subject to taxes and deductions other than stamp duty”.

Each year, the budget laws determine the appropriations for the preparation of the academic year without the need for a separate decision of the Council of Ministers and the amounts are published in the supplementary table.

The preparation allowance for the academic year is a social right, the amount of which is determined by budget laws each year, and should be paid by employers to teachers working in private schools in accordance with the provisions of Article 33 of Law No. 625 and Article 9 of Law No. 5580.

During the previous appellate review of our Chamber, a decision was made by overlooking some of the legal regulations mentioned above, and the judgment is based on a material error. It has been decided that the reversal decision of our Chamber shall be REMOVED. From the examination of the file and its annexes, it is necessary to decide as follows.

JUDICIARY DECISION

According to the writings in the file, the evidence on which the judgment is based, the legal grounds and especially the appreciation of the evidence, and especially since there is no inaccuracy in the appreciation of the evidence, it was unanimously decided on 07.03.2013 to reject all the appellate objections of both parties, to confirm the judgment which is in accordance with the procedure and the law, and to charge the remaining 8.70 TL of the appeal expenses written below to the plaintiff.