İş ilişkisi; işçi ve işveren arasında kişisel, sürekli ve bağımlılığa dayalı bir ilişkidir. Bu nedenle sözleşme taraflarının yeterince birbirlerini tanımadan iş sözleşmesi bağıtlamaları kendileri açısından riskler taşımaktadır. Riskleri en aza indirgemek için kanun koyucunun getirdiği mekanizmalardan biri iş sözleşmesine deneme süresi şartı konulmasıdır. Deneme süreli iş ilişkisi, Türk iş hukukunun önemli konu başlıklarındandır. Çalışma içerisinde, İş Kanunu, Borçlar Kanunu, Basın İş Kanunu, Deniz İş Kanunu ve Mesleki Eğitim Kanunundaki deneme süreli iş sözleşmelerine ilişkin sorunlar tartışılmış ve çözüm önerileri sunulmuştur.

The feature of business contracts, which constructs individual and continuous relationship, accounts for the valid ground the necessity of mutual probation. As business contract sets a “continuous dept relationship” which is based on mutual trust, the employer reaps the benefit of this probationary period in terms of seeing the employee’s vocational knowledge and skill, working style and then accordance with the business and vocational behavior. Probationary period aims to give an idea to the employer about the individual’s appropriateness for the job. During the probationary period, employee’s personal appropriateness is tested in addition to that of his vocation. It is almost out of question in a business contract to learn about personal appropriateness without mutual probation. Probationary period also gives the chance to the employee to understand whether the job is appropriate for his/her expectations. The employee will want to be aware of the relationship in the working place, and he/she will also test the appropriateness of job position in question. Thus, an employee who is employed with a permanent contract will have the opportunity to be acquainted with the job, employer, working place, the other workers, to evaluate whether he/she will conform to working conditions, to knock off the position easier unless he conforms. Even though a business contract with a probationary period provides advantages for the employee, it is generally accepted that it is far behind of the employer’s benefit. Briefly, employment relationship with a probationary period means an employment relationship which provides both to the employer and the employee with the opportunity for the probation of the other party in the contract, his/her work position, and the working place in accordance with the continuous and long term relationship. Moreover, probationary period can be defined as the beginning time when the participants of the business contract legally guarantee their decision on whether they will maintain the contract or not. In the 15th article of labour law, business contract with the probationary period was edited. According to this article; “When an entry of probation is set in the business contract in parties, the period lasts at most for two months. However, the probationary period can be lengthened up to four months with the collective bargaining agreement. In the probationary period, the parties can cancel the business contract without the need for the announcement time and compensation. The payment and other rights of the employee are legally guaranteed for the days he/she works.” The legal decisions related to the service contract of Code of Obligations are administered to the employees who are beyond the scope of the Labour Law with number 4857, Media Employment Law, Marine Employment Law. The probationary period is organized in the Code of Obligations, under the heading of “The Termination of Service Contract”, in the issue of the announcement time of cancellation of the open-ended-employment contract, in the 433rd article. According to this article; the parties can set probationary period on the condition that it will not exceed two months. The parties can cancel the service contract without any compensation even if they agree on the time of the probationary period and the cancellation period which they do not have to obey. The payment and other rights of the employee are legally guaranteed for the days he/she works.” As it can be seen, the regulation in the content of the probationary period is the same on principle both in the Labour Law and in the Codes of Obligations. A probationary period is not automatically set at the very beginning of the business contract. A probationary period is only possible with the agreement of the parties on the setting a probationary period. A probationary entry must be available in the business contract for the existence of probationary period. In the 15th article of Labour Law, there exists a passage mentioning “when an entry of probationary period is set in the business contract by the parties…” To the Court of Appeal; what is fundamental is that the business contract should be constructed without mentioning of the probationary period. The construction of a business contract with an entry of probationary period is an exceptional situation. The employee’s being newly employed is not regarded as the only proof of the parties foreseeing the length of the probationary period. It is a must that the parties clearly decide on the probationary period. The only exception of the probationary period’s being not related to the parties’ decision is in the Vocational Training Law with which it is a must that probationary period is predetermined before the contract is done with the apprentices. It should be “clearly” understood from the contract that the probationary period is determined. This is because there is no indication signifying the existence of probationary period in the starting point of business contract. According to German Law; if a probationary period is determined in the contract, a job with an indefinite period indicates the probationary period as the starting point in any case of doubt. If a contract with a given period is demanded, it should be pointed out in the contract clearly. The party which claims the determination of business contract with a definite probationary period is obliged to prove it in Turkish Law. There is no distinct arrangement in Labour Law concerning the necessity to make a written business contract with probation entry. However, probationary period in application is determined especially in written business contracts. As the starting point of the probationary period, the date on which the employee actually starts work is taken into consideration, but not the date of the contract. That is because it is only possible with actually starting the work to probate each other. In the case of employer’s delayed acceptance to work in the very beginning of the contract, probationary period cannot be mentioned to start even if the business contract begins to run. In this context, it is not possible to benefit from the rules which were set for the probationary period in the fifteenth article of Labour Law as the parties have not started to probate each other. A contrary idea will lead to misuse of arrangement which has been put forward by the law. Cancellation without denunciation and compensation can only be used after probation. During the probationary period employee or employer can annul the contract without paying compensation or waiting for the announcement time. Then, if the kind of contract is fixed term, “the end of the period” and if it is open-ended term “the announcement time” will not be watched over. Thus, without waiting for the announcement time in business contracts with open-ended term, it will not cause the obligation of denunciation compensation. In fixed-term business contracts, the employer who dissolves within probationary period will be saved from paying until the end of the contract. If the employee dissolves, he/she will also be saved from serving the employer in the rest of the time determined in fixed-term business contract. There is no need for one party to wait until the end of predetermined probationary period in order to use its right for terminating the contract. If there is no agreement in the contrary, the contract can be cancelled at any time in the probationary period. In probationary period during the parties’ cancellation, there is no necessity to submit a valid and just ground which is related to the aim of probationary period. The party which cancels is not supposed to prove as a rule that the probation is unsuccessful. Even probation’s being seen as successful impartially doesn’t impede the use of cancellation rights within probationary period unless the contract has not been annulled on account of misuses such as the employee’s enrollment to a syndicate or his/her complaints. The main reason of the legal problems regarding the business contracts with probationary period is that laws and regulations are not presented in detail and in a crystal clear way. Thus, the legal inconsistencies related to the probationary period are dealt with interpretation method. In order to overcome the inconsistencies in the implementation, new and detailed adjustments are proposed. In addition to these facts, many rules especially in the Media Employment Law and Marine Employment Law are far from meeting the needs of the implementation as they are out of date. Therefore, the problems emerging from the wearing out of the adjustments related to the probationary period in such laws form the main focus of this study. With regards to the comparing and contrasting the rules related to the periodical cancellation and probationary period, one of the main problems is that Turkish Labour Law involves extremely deficient rules. It is natural that a weaker arrangement is done in the termination of a business contract with a probationary period than the ones arranging the periodical cancellation as the parties demand to get rid of the business relationship easier during the probationary period. As a matter fact, the case is the same in both German and Swiss Laws. However, the rules related to the termination of the contract with periodical cancellation are so weak in Turkish Law that legislator has chosen the way to completely abolish the announcement time in termination of business contract with probationary period as it will be easier relative to periodical cancellation. Consequently, in order to prevent negative effects of immediate cancellation on parties during probationary period; even it is within this period, it will be accurate to bring at least aweek-announcement with a law change as in the case of Swiss Law