MAIN EMPLOYER – SUB-EMPLOYER RELATIONSHIP

The relationship between the main employer and the subcontractor arises when the main employer needs another employer for auxiliary tasks related to the production of goods or services and assigns that work to them. However, a subcontracting relationship also occurs when the main employer assigns a part of the main work to another employer due to technological requirements necessitated by the business and the nature of the work. Article 2 of the Labor Law No. 4857 defines this relationship.

The main employer is jointly and severally liable with the subcontractor for obligations arising from the Labor Law and the employment contract or collective bargaining agreement to which the subcontractor is a party, with respect to the subcontractor's employees in relation to the workplace. This relationship imposes a direct responsibility on the main employer towards the subcontractor's employees. The main employer is responsible for the employee's rights, such as wages, annual leave, and overtime, as well as for occupational health and safety measures, training for employees in this regard, and monitoring working conditions. The fundamental reason for the joint responsibility of the main employer and the subcontractor in this matter is to protect the rights of the employees.

If the main employer enters into a collusive contract with a subcontractor, the main employer becomes liable for the subcontractor's employees as if they were their own. This is to prevent main employers from dismissing their own employees and then falsely claiming they are working for the subcontractor, thereby paying the dismissed employee less. In such cases, the subcontractor's employees are treated as if they were the main employer's own employees.

Certain conditions must be met for a principal employer and subcontractor relationship to exist. These conditions are: the existence of a principal employer, the work being performed at the principal employer's workplace, the work relating to goods or services produced at the workplace, and the work requiring technological expertise as part of the business or the nature of the work.

Except under the conditions mentioned above, it is not possible to divide the main work into parts and subcontract it. For example, a factory that regularly produces bags might contract with a company for security services; this is an auxiliary task related to the production of the goods and constitutes a subcontracting relationship. However, subcontracting a task related to bag production that does not require technological expertise to another employer does not constitute a subcontracting relationship.