INTRODUCTION
As it is known, pursuant to Article 4 of the Labor Law numbered 4857 (“LL”), which states that “the provisions of this law shall not be applicable in maritime air transportation works and labor relations”, flight personnel and/or flying personnel such as pilots, flight engineers, cabin officers and loading operators are excluded from the scope of the LL.
Since there is no air labor law in force in Turkish legislation, general provisions are applied in disputes arising out of labor law for flight crew members. Accordingly, the provisions of the Turkish Code of Obligations numbered 6098 (“TCO”) regarding service contracts are applied in the resolution of disputes arising from labor law. On the other hand, it should be noted that unionized flight crew members will be subject to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”) and will benefit from their legal rights under this agreement.
In this respect, working and rest periods for aviation personnel vary according to the legislation they are subject to. In this article, the rest and work hours of flight personnel such as pilots, flight engineers, cabin officers and loading operators will be evaluated within the scope of the legislation in force in general terms.
A. EVALUATION OF WORKING HOURS
Although there is no definition of working hours within the scope of the Labor Law, when the “Regulation on Working Hours Regarding the Labor Law”, which is secondary legislation, is examined, there is a definition of working hours as “Working time is the time spent by the employee in the work for which he/she is employed.” First of all, when the Labor Law legislation in force regarding working hours is evaluated, according to Article 41 of the Labor Law, the maximum working time is forty-five hours per week. As a rule, the authority to determine the working time of the employee belongs to the employer, unless it is contrary to the legislation. When the provisions of the TCO are analyzed, it is seen that no specific working time is stipulated for the workers subject to the TCO and that the relevant laws are referred to in this regard.
The aviation sector is a sector with its own special characteristics and contains many factors that should be taken into consideration when making any regulation. Since there is no legal regulation in the field of air labor law yet, it is necessary to make certain regulations by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation due to the nature of the work in order to fill the legislative gap.
In this respect, it is clear that the working and rest periods of the flight personnel should be determined in accordance with the dynamics of the aviation sector. In this context, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (“DGCA”) has issued the “Instruction on Flight Personnel Flight Duty and Rest Periods and Application Principles” (“Instruction”) regarding the working and rest periods of flight personnel. The said instruction sets the limits for the working and rest periods of flight crew in general. Airline companies are authorized to determine the working hours of the flight personnel just like the Labor Law, as long as it does not contradict this Instruction.
Within the scope of the Instruction, Flight Time and/or Block Time is defined as “the total time elapsed from the moment an aircraft starts its first movement under its own power or by applying an external power for the purpose of taking off until the moment it comes to a complete stop at the end of the flight or mission and arrives at the parking place allocated to it for the purpose of unloading and/or loading passengers, cargo or other contents”. Flight duty time is defined as “the total time for a single flight or a flight mission consisting of a series of flights, during which the flight crew member is exempted from all flight duties starting with flight preparation and ending at the end of the same flight or series of flights”. Flight duty time cannot exceed 56 hours per week, 210 hours in one month, 500 hours in three months and 1800 hours in a calendar year.
The Instruction defines two more duty periods as Interrupted Flight Duty Period and Non-Interrupted Flight Duty Period. Accordingly, Intermittent Flight Duty Time is defined as “the flight duty time for each crew member during which there is waiting between flight periods” and Non-stop Flight Duty Time is defined as “the flight duty time for each crew member during which there is no waiting between flight periods, except for the preparation time for a new flight task planned by the aviation operator”. Interrupted and Uninterrupted Flight Duty Periods are determined as 14 hours for each flight crew member.
B. EVALUATION OF REST PERIODS
a) Evaluation of Rest Breaks
It is aimed to rest the workers during the working period with the period referred to as rest break. Under Article 68 of the Labor Law, rest periods are specified and these periods are not counted as working time. The daily working time is 15 minutes for work lasting 4 hours or less, half an hour for work lasting between 4 hours and 7.5 hours (including 7.5 hours) and up to 1 hour for work lasting more than 7.5 hours.
Within the scope of the Instruction, rest period is defined as “the period during which an aircrew is exempted from all kinds of duties starting from the end of the previous flight duty period and lasting until the start time of a new flight duty period”. Within the scope of the relevant Instruction, similar to the Labor Law, it has been determined that the rest periods are not included in the flight time. Within the scope of the Instruction, the minimum rest period is 8 hours for flights up to 6 hours, 10 hours for flights up to 11 hours (including 11 hours), 12 hours for flights longer than 11 hours, 14 hours for flights between 12-14 hours or with a time zone difference of more than 3 hours, and 24 hours for long range flights.
b) Evaluation of the Week Holiday
Pursuant to Article 46 of the Labor Law, week holiday is a 24-hour rest period within a 7-day period without interruption. Article 421 of the Turkish Code of Obligations regulates week holidays. According to the provision of the article, the Employer is obliged to give the Employee one full day off every week (as a rule on Sunday).
Similar to the LL and TCO, the Instruction stipulates that “Each crew member shall be given at least one day of uninterrupted free time within the last 7 consecutive days, separately, under the same conditions as the criteria for starting the rest period.” In accordance with the Instruction, it is determined that the free days of the flight crew members are planned as 1 day per week, 7 days per month, 21 days per 3 months and 96 days per year.
CONCLUSION
Pursuant to Article 4 of the Labor Law, flight personnel and/or flying personnel such as pilots, flight engineers, cabin officers and load operators who work by flying are excluded from the scope of LL. Since there is no air labor law in force in the Turkish legal legislation, general provisions of the Turkish Code of Obligations regarding the service contract are applied in the resolution of disputes arising from the labor law of the flight personnel. On the other hand, it should be noted that unionized flight personnel members will be subject to the Collective Labor Agreement and will benefit from their legal rights within the scope of this agreement.
On the other hand, there is a legal regulation in force regarding air labor law, and due to the fact that the aviation sector is a sector with its own special characteristics, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation makes the necessary arrangements to fill the legislative gap.
In terms of working hours; it has been determined that there is a special provision under the Labor Law, there is no specific working period for workers subject to the TCO under the TCO, and there is a special provision regarding Flight Time in accordance with the DGCA Instruction.
In terms of rest periods, it has been determined that there are provisions regarding rest periods that differ according to working hours in accordance with the Labor Law and DGCA Instruction. Regarding the week holiday, according to the Labor Law, 24 hours of rest time is given within a period of 7 days without interruption. In the Turkish Code of Obligations, the Employer is obliged to give the Employee one full day off every week. The DGCA Instruction, in parallel with both legislations, at least one day of uninterrupted free time is given within the last 7 consecutive days, under the same conditions as the criteria for starting the rest period.
Although the provisions of the legislation are similar to each other as detailed above, we would like to emphasize that issues such as working hours and rest periods for aviation personnel vary depending on the legislation to which they are subject and whether they are covered by the CBA or not. In this case, we would like to state that it is necessary to first determine which legislation the flight personnel are subject to under concrete conditions.
