Complete restructuring without generating litigation.
Employment-law planning for organisational change, post-merger integration and downsizing: the collective dismissal procedure, transfer of the workplace, and managing the transition.
The legal shadow of a restructuring decision
A decision to downsize, integrate a merger or relocate a function falls within management's freedom of business judgment, but carrying it out is bound by strict procedure. An announcement made in the wrong order, an incomplete notification or an inconsistent selection criterion does not produce one claim; it produces a series of them.
Procedural map
Collective dismissal thresholds
the notification duties that follow from the size of the workplace (İŞKUR, notice at the workplace) and the waiting periods.
Social selection
a consistent, defensible set of criteria for deciding which employees are affected.
Transfer scenarios
the automatic transfer of contracts on a workplace transfer, continuity of seniority and the transferee's liabilities — the most sensitive file in M&A integration.
Package design
mutual termination agreements (ikale) and support packages that buy out litigation risk.
Communication and timing
The order of announcements (management, then those affected, then those who remain), the leak scenarios and, where a union is involved, the negotiation calendar amount to a choreography that legal and HR must run from one plan. What preserves the trust of the remaining team is whether the process is seen to be fair.
Five steps from scenario to close
Scenario and cost model: who is affected, which procedure applies and what the package costs — the decision is taken on that basis. Procedural calendar: the collective-dismissal notification and waiting periods under Article 29 of Labour Law No. 4857, the İŞKUR correspondence and, where a union is involved, the negotiation steps are planned backwards from the target date. Document production: the business decision, the selection criteria, the notices and the record templates. Mutual termination (ikale) talks: conducted with packages that meet the reasonable-benefit standard, and without any impression of pressure. Close: the claims that follow are met with a single defence strategy. Deliverables: the scenario report, the procedural calendar, the document set and a manager Q&A guide, all fed by the case-law tracking of our Employment Law focus.
Transfer and merger scenarios
Restructuring usually arrives in the shadow of a transaction: merger integration, a share transfer, the relocation of a function. On a transfer of the workplace, Article 6 of the Labour Law passes employment contracts to the new employer automatically, and that transition has to be synchronised with the structural-transaction timetable under the Turkish Commercial Code (Law No. 6102). German groups tend to reason from §613a BGB practice; the two regimes are related but do not map onto each other one for one — the notification and objection mechanics work differently. We run the transaction side as a single project with our M&A team and build the employment plan before the signing calendar is fixed.
We are by your side for Employment Restructuring
We begin with a scenario analysis — who, under which procedure, at what cost — then build the documentation and the timetable, conduct the mutual termination (ikale) talks, and meet the claims that follow with a single defence strategy.
Other Applications of This Service
Corporate Structuring — our other specialised solutions in this area.
Matter Connections
The focus areas, practice areas, desks and legislation connected with this sub-service.
Our Matters in This Service
The anonymised examples of our work that relate to this service.
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Consistent planning across two legal systems of the will, matrimonial property regime and company-share structure for assets in Türkiye and Germany.
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Related Publications
Fresh perspectives and guides from the Knowledge Centre.
Tiered thresholds apply based on the workplace headcount, and dismissals within a one-month period are counted together. The threshold calculation is the first step of planning.
Hiring for the same job shortly after a collective dismissal calls the genuineness of the termination into question, and former employees' priority rehiring rights may come into play. The hiring plan should be built together with the exit plan.
As a rule, a transfer passes contracts over automatically; the consequences of an employee's objection vary by scenario. Transfer communications and orderly documentation close these questions off in advance.
Employment Restructuring — get the right legal support.
Let us identify the right solution together, drawing on our experience in Türkiye and the DACH region.