Legal AlertThe Constitutional Court of Turkey Rendered a Decision on the Employer’s Examination of Employee’s Corporate E-mail Account Contents and Termination of the Employment Contract.
In its decision dated 17.09.2020 (“Decision”), the Constitutional Court of Turkey (“Turkish Constitutional Court”; “TCC”) evaluated the claims within the frame of application numbered 2016/13010, that the corporate e-mail correspondence of the applicant was subjected to inspection by the employer in the attorney partnership where the applicant worked, the applicant’s employment contract was terminated based on the correspondence between the applicant and the team manager which was obtained during the inspection, there was no written or verbal rule in the workplace that employees’ e-mails could be inspected and the inspection subject to application occurred without the consent of the applicant, the termination was not based on a just or good cause, besides, the termination did not take place within six workdays after the reason for termination have been found out by the employer, the court of instance did not present any justification to meet the applicant’s objections and evidence, and thus the right to a fair trial, the freedom of communication and the right to respect to privacy has been violated.