Article 94 of Civil Servants Act No. 657 makes a public official’s departure from office subject to specific procedures and conditions. Under that article, a civil servant is entitled to request to resign from the civil service by submitting a written application to the institution employing them; in practice this route is known as resignation under the ordinary procedure, and a written application is mandatory. The second way in which the employment relationship may come to an end is deemed resignation. A civil servant who fails to attend work for 10 uninterrupted days without an excuse accepted by their institution is treated as having requested to resign. The same result follows for a civil servant who does not return to duty within the following 10 days once their unpaid leave has expired.
In certain situations the Act takes a stricter line. A civil servant sent abroad on specified grounds who does not resume duty at the end of the leave period may be deemed to have resigned from the civil service directly, without being allowed any further period of unexcused absence. A similar result applies to transfers: a civil servant who fails to take up duty at the new place of posting even after the statutory periods, and indeed the additional 10 days of unpaid time, have elapsed is deemed to have resigned. As can be seen, no written application to the institution is required for this mechanism to operate.
- In addition to the general rule laid down in that article, the Act also provides, in various of its provisions, for specific situations in which a civil servant is deemed to have resigned from office. Below we examine in detail both the ordinary resignation procedure and these particular situations.
Ordinary Resignation from the Civil Service
Ordinary resignation is governed by the first sentence of Article 94 of the Civil Servants Act. Under that provision, a civil servant may express the intention to leave office by applying in writing to the institution to which they are attached. Resignation under the ordinary procedure, as it is known in practice, begins when the civil servant submits this written request to the institution.
A petition alone, however, is not enough to bring the duties to an end. In order actually to leave, the civil servant must either have the request accepted by the institution or have the person appointed in their place take up duty. Nor is the wait for a replacement open-ended; that waiting period is at most 1 month. Once that 1 month has expired, the civil servant who requested to resign may leave office after informing their superior, even if no one has been appointed in their place.
Expiry of the waiting period is not always required. If the institution accepts the request to resign within that 1-month period, the civil servant may actually leave office without any further formality and without waiting out any period.
Resignation under Extraordinary Administrative Regimes
Article 96 of the Act places departure from office under a separate regime in extraordinary circumstances. The ability of civil servants working during a state of emergency, war or mobilisation, or in places struck by disasters affecting ordinary life, to leave their posts depends on one of only two conditions being satisfied: acceptance of the request to resign by the institution, or the taking up of duty by the person appointed in their place. The one-month waiting rule does not operate in this situation; even if 1 month has passed since the date of the request and no one has arrived to replace them, the civil servant must continue to perform their duties unless the institution gives its approval.
The sanction for breaching this rule is severe. A civil servant who requests to resign under an extraordinary administrative regime and abandons their post before the person appointed in their place has taken up duty, or before the institution has accepted the request, may never again be appointed to the civil service.
Grounds Giving Rise to Deemed Resignation
The situations in which a civil servant is deemed to have resigned are set out in Article 94 of the Civil Servants Act. We explain each of them in turn.
Ten Days of Continuous Unexcused Absence
- That article provides for a general form of deemed resignation bringing civil service employment to an end:
Civil Servants Act No. 657, Art. 94
“Where duty is abandoned without leave or without an excuse accepted by the institution, and that abandonment continues without interruption for 10 days, a request to resign shall be deemed to have been made, without any requirement of a written application.”
Lawful absences such as annual leave or excused leave fall outside this scope. By contrast, a civil servant who does not attend work for 10 uninterrupted days is treated as having resigned from the civil service.
Failure to Return to Duty within Ten Days of the End of Unpaid Leave
Article 108 of the Act, headed “unpaid leave”, provides that a civil servant may be granted leave without salary where certain conditions are met. A civil servant who is unable to work for health reasons may take up to 18 months of unpaid leave, provided that they submit a medical board report and make a request to that effect. The post-natal period and adoption are also among the grounds for unpaid leave. In such cases, the civil servant is expected to return to their post within the following 10 days once the leave has expired or once the excuse underlying it has ceased to exist. A civil servant who has still not returned to duty at the end of that 10-day period is deemed to have resigned.
Civil Servants Act No. 657, Art. 108
“Where the reason giving rise to the excuse ceases to exist before the expiry of the period of unpaid leave, it is mandatory to return to duty within ten days. Those who fail to return to duty within ten days of the expiry of the period of unpaid leave or of the cessation of the reason for the excuse shall be deemed to have resigned from the civil service.”
Failure to Resume Duty at the End of Leave by a Servant Sent Abroad
In the two situations examined above, the legislature requires the failure to resume duty to last 10 days. In other words, a civil servant who is late in returning to duty is allowed, in certain situations, an additional margin of 10 days of unexcused absence. In some situations, by contrast, no such waiting period operates at all; the civil servant is deemed to have resigned immediately, as soon as the failure to resume duty arises. Civil servants sent abroad on leave on either of the two grounds below are deemed to have resigned from the civil service directly, without any 10-day wait, if they do not return to their posts at the end of the leave:
- Civil servants permitted to travel abroad in order to be trained or educated in professional services, to increase their knowledge or to undertake an internship
- Civil servants permitted to go abroad having succeeded in selection or competitive examinations held by their institutions, or on the basis of foreign scholarships (including those who have obtained a private scholarship personally)
Failure of a Transferred Servant to Take Up the New Post
A civil servant assigned elsewhere by way of transfer must take up duty at the new place of posting within 15 days beginning on the date the transfer order is served on them. Where considered necessary, a travel period deemed appropriate for reaching the place of duty may be added to that 15-day period. Beyond that, the civil servant may even be granted an additional 10 days of unpaid time once the posting period and any travel period have expired. A civil servant who, despite the exhaustion of all these periods, fails to take up the new post without a valid and compelling excuse capable of being evidenced is deemed to have resigned.
Consequences of Leaving Duty Irregularly
Under Article 97 of Act No. 657, the duties of a civil servant deemed to have resigned come to an end as of the day on which that result arises. The person concerned may not be readmitted to the civil service until a year has passed.
Distinctions between Ordinary Resignation and Deemed Resignation
The first sentence of Article 94 of the Civil Servants Act defines resignation under the ordinary procedure. The civil servant notifies their wish to leave office by applying in writing to their institution. That application alone is not sufficient, however; for the departure to take effect, the request must be accepted or the person appointed in the civil servant’s place must arrive. The replacement is awaited for 1 month at most; even if no appointment is made within that period, the civil servant who made the request may leave office. Civil servants who resign under the ordinary procedure must wait at least 6 months before they can return to duty.
Deemed resignation rests on a different logic. In the situations explained in detail in this note, no written application is required; a civil servant who abandons their duties without an excuse accepted by the institution is deemed to have requested to resign once certain conditions are satisfied. Civil servants whose employment ends in this way, on the other hand, may not return to the civil service until 1 year has passed from the date of resignation.
Is Deemed Resignation a Disciplinary Penalty?
Disciplinary penalties are defined in Article 125 of the Civil Servants Act, and failure to attend work for 3 to 9 days without excuse and without interruption is among the acts calling for suspension of grade advancement. Since deemed resignation likewise involves the civil servant leaving duty irregularly, the first 10 days spent without leave and without excuse form the subject matter of a disciplinary sanction. For the days beyond those 10, by contrast, the Act provides that the civil servant is deemed to have resigned, so the absence is thereafter characterised as a departure from office of the servant’s own volition and no disciplinary penalty arises.
Council of State, 8th Chamber, Case No. 2008/8930, Decision No. 2012/1651, 11.04.2012
“The Act lists failure to attend work for 3 to 9 days without excuse and without interruption among the acts and situations calling for the penalty of suspension of grade advancement. Deemed resignation is not a disciplinary penalty; it is the termination of a person’s civil service employment of their own volition. While absences of civil servants of up to 10 days are assessed as an offence forming the subject of discipline, in the case of 10 days of absence an administrative act is performed on the footing that the person concerned has terminated their civil service employment of their own volition.”
For details of the types and degrees of disciplinary sanctions, our note entitled Disciplinary Penalties That May Be Imposed on Civil Servants may be consulted.
Petition of Resignation from the Civil Service
Civil servants wishing to leave office on the basis of Article 94 of Civil Servants Act No. 657, headed Resignation, submit their request to their institutions by way of a written petition. The petition should clearly state the civil servant’s identity and personnel record details, the unit in which they serve, their intention to resign and the statutory provision on which the request is based. Recording the date on which the request was delivered to the institution matters for the calculation of periods at the subsequent stage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is representation by a lawyer mandatory in administrative proceedings?
Turkish law allows parties to defend and represent themselves in person before the courts; save for limited exceptions, representation by a lawyer is not mandatory. Nor is there any obligation to be represented by a lawyer practising in administrative law before the administrative courts. That said, the complex structure of administrative law legislation and the short and strict nature of the periods laid down in the Administrative Procedure Act No. 2577 mean that conducting the process without a lawyer may lead to errors, both procedural and substantive, that are difficult to remedy. In order to avoid any loss of rights in administrative proceedings governed by detailed rules, it is advisable to obtain assistance from lawyers practising in administrative law before taking any step.
Does the financial and criminal liability of a servant deemed to have resigned continue?
It does. Article 97 of the Civil Servants Act, which sets out the conditions for the reappointment of civil servants deemed to have resigned, reserves their financial and criminal liability. Accordingly, if loss to the public purse has arisen from the conduct of a civil servant deemed to have resigned, that servant may be held liable in financial and criminal terms.
May a servant who leaves duty during an extraordinary period be reappointed?
During a state of emergency, war or mobilisation, civil servants may not leave their posts even if they have submitted a request to resign, unless their request is accepted or those appointed in their place take up duty. Those who abandon their posts in breach of this rule may never be readmitted to the civil service in any way. Those deemed to have resigned where no state of emergency is involved, by contrast, may be appointed as civil servants again once 1 year has passed.
What situations bring civil service employment to an end?
The situations that bring civil service employment to an end number 6: resignation from the civil service, deemed resignation, dismissal from the civil service, failure to meet the conditions of service, engagement in work incompatible with the post, and death and retirement.
May a servant who left office during the pandemic become a civil servant again?
Among the forms of resignation, the consequence of being unable to become a civil servant again is provided for only in respect of those who leave office during a state of emergency, war or mobilisation. Whether the Covid-19 outbreak amounted to a state of emergency is therefore decisive. In our view, although measures amounting in fact to a state of emergency were applied during the outbreak, no state of emergency was declared in accordance with the proper procedure, and a civil servant who resigned during that period may therefore return to the civil service.
Independent Legal Assessment
Deemed resignation is not a sanction resting on the discretion of the administration; it is a result arising once the conditions laid down in the statute are satisfied. Disputes therefore turn most often not on the gravity of the act but on whether the absence was uninterrupted, whether the excuse was notified to the institution in the proper form, and whether the periods were calculated correctly. Even a single day counting as an interruption can change the outcome entirely.
For a civil servant who is the subject of a deemed resignation decision, or who faces such a risk, the following points stand out:
- Documenting whether the absence genuinely lasted 10 uninterrupted days, taking weekends and public holidays into account
- Proving on what date and by what means a medical report, a request for unpaid leave or a similar excuse reached the institution
- Checking, in cases of transfer, whether the travel period and the additional 10-day period were added to the 15-day posting period
- Not overlooking the fact that, in the case of leave abroad, the decision may be taken directly without any additional period being allowed
- Distinguishing whether the decision is one of deemed resignation or a disciplinary penalty, and examining whether a separate disciplinary decision exists in respect of the first 10 days
- Ensuring that the 6-month and 1-year periods governing reappointment to the civil service are applied correctly
Independent Legal advises on the review of the lawfulness of deemed resignation decisions and on the conduct of actions for annulment in disputes arising from public personnel law.