Protection of wages in Turkish Labour Law

The employment contract which shall be defined an agreement in which the employee undertakes to perform work according to the order and instructions of the Employer; the Employer undertakes to pay a wage to the Employee for the work, is a sinagmallatic contract that mutually imposes debts on the parties. The wage to be paid by the Employer to the Employee as a compensation for his/her work performance is an obligatory element for the acceptance of this relation as an employment contract. As expressed in the Constitution, that wage is an amount to be paid for the work and in this context, it is clearly emphasized as a constitutional right. It is possible to find a clear definition of the concept of wage in the Turkish Labour Law numbered 4857. According to the Article 32/I of the Law, the wage is the amount of money to be paid in cash by an employer or a third party to a person for the work he/she has performed.So it shall be mentioned that the wage is an obligatory element of an employment contract and according to the regulations, work performance without wage cannot be accepted as an employment relationship. The wage constitutes the most significant debt of the employer regarding the employment contract and also for the employee, wage is not only the value and consideration of his/her works; but also it is a social factor as the unique source of living. The restriction of payment of the wage for any reasons shall push the employees and also his family to a difficult economic situation. Therefore, the legislator stipulates regulations related to the protection of employees? wage in view to prevent violation of rights of the employees related to the wage payment and its limitations. These regulations are related to the protection of the wages against transactions of employer, against transaction of third parties and also against own the transactions of employee.In this study, the protection of employee?s wage will be studied in the light of the provisions of the Turkish Labour Law and Turkish Obligation Law and also international agreements on this issue will be mentioned. After briefly defining the wage concept, international regulations dedicated to protection of wage will be dealt with and then the protection of wage, protection of wage against transactions of employer, against transaction of third parties and against own transactions of employee will be studied. Finally, administrative fines and penalties related to protection of wage will be examined.Keywords: Wage, Employee, Employer, Protection of wages, Protection of wages against transaction of third parties, Wage Guarantee Fund.