In brief
Work whose daily hours are limited to 7.5 for health reasons is listed in Art. 4 of the regulation, and work with even shorter hours in Art. 5; casting, welding, plating, quenching and noisy work above 85 dB(A) directly concern the metal sector. In this work no overtime may be done, employees may not be put on other work once the time is up, and written notice is given to the İŞKUR provincial directorate before the work starts. The shift plan is built on 7.5 hours of work and a half-hour rest break.
Legal basis and scope of the regulation
The general weekly limit of 45 hours does not apply in the same way to all work. In some jobs, the health effects of exposure require daily working hours to be shortened. These jobs are set out in the Regulation on Work That Must Be Performed for a Maximum of Seven and a Half Hours or Less per Day for Health Reasons. The regulation was published in Official Gazette No. 28709 of 16 July 2013 and is based on Art. 30 of Law No. 6331. It repealed the earlier regulation of 2004.
The regulation contains two lists. Art. 4 lists work that may be performed for no more than 7.5 hours a day. Art. 5 lists work for which an even shorter time than 7.5 hours is set, and gives those times. In practice this is the rule referred to as "jobs limited to 7.5 hours a day" or simply "the 7.5-hour regulation".
As a separate provision, Art. 63 of Labour Law No. 4857 limits working hours in underground mining to no more than 7.5 hours a day and 37.5 hours a week. In this article we focus on work found in manufacturing, especially in metal and machinery businesses in Bursa and the surrounding provinces.
Jobs limited to 7.5 hours a day: the list in the regulation
Art. 4 consists of 23 sub-paragraphs. Each sub-paragraph covers not a sector but specific jobs within that sector. Those that directly concern metal and machinery businesses are in the first part of the table.
| Sub-para. | Work group | Main jobs covered |
|---|---|---|
| ğ | Iron and steel | Steelworks furnaces, carrying molten metal and hot slag, rolling mills (except those working with cold iron), hot pressing |
| h | Casting | Moulding sand preparation, mould making, melting and pouring, knockout, centrifugal casting |
| ı | Plating | Electroplating, polishing, tinning, hot-dip galvanising, pickling with acid |
| k | Accumulators | Battery manufacture and repair, electrolyte preparation and charging |
| l | Welding | All types of gas-shielded welding, submerged arc welding, oxy-fuel and electric welding |
| m | Quenching metals | Hardening and case hardening |
| p | Noisy work | Work where daily exposure exceeds 85 dB(A) over 8 hours |
| s | Dusty work | Work in workplaces where dusts causing pneumoconiosis are present |
| a, c, e, f, g | Lead-arsenic, mercury, zinc, copper, aluminium | Smelting, alloying, ore preparation and related work |
| b, ç, d, i, j | Glass, cement, coke and thermal power plants, carbide, acids | Raw material preparation, furnaces, grinding, bagging and related work |
| n, o, ö, r, ş | Rubber, underground, radioactive substances, compressed air under water (up to 20 m), pesticides | Rubber compounding and hot vulcanisation, underground work, work with radiation, diving, pesticide application |
When reading the list, note two points. First, coverage under a sub-paragraph is determined by the work itself: in an automotive supplier firm, only the welding line or the electroplating department may be covered. Second, the noise sub-paragraph depends on a measurement result. If you do not know in which department 85 dB(A) is exceeded, you first need to have workplace noise measurement carried out. We plan measurements with authorised laboratories and enter the results in the risk assessment.
Work with hours even shorter than 7.5
Art. 5 shortens the daily time further for some work:
- Working in compressed air under water: 7 hours at 20–25 m depth, 6 hours at 25–30 m, 5 hours at 30–35 m, 4 hours at 35–40 m. There are separate, shorter times for divers.
- Mercury work: 6 hours in mercury smelting furnaces and in mines containing elemental mercury.
- Lead work: 4 hours for removing dry dust accumulated in the condensation chambers of lead smelting furnaces.
- Carbon disulphide: 6 hours for work with a risk of exposure to carbon disulphide.
- Insecticides: 6 hours for the manufacture, packaging, preparation as solutions and application of carbamate and organophosphate insecticides.
The 6-hour limit is directly relevant to pest control firms and plants formulating agricultural pesticides.
Three consequences of the limit
The regulation reinforces the time limit with three additional provisions:
- Ban on other work (Art. 6): Employees in covered work may not be put on any other work after completing the maximum daily time. An employee who has welded for 7.5 hours cannot be told at the end of the shift to "help out in the warehouse for an hour".
- Ban on overtime (Art. 7): No overtime may be done in this work. The employee's consent does not lift this ban.
- Notification (Art. 8): Employers in workplaces where this work is carried out continuously notify the provincial directorate of the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) to which the workplace belongs, in writing and before the work starts, of the type and nature of the work, when it is carried out and the numbers of women and men employees. No new notification is needed for work already notified under the 2004 regulation.
How is this reflected in the shift plan?
Turning the limit into a shift plan starts with calculating the rest break correctly. Under Art. 68 of Law 4857, for work lasting more than 4 hours and up to 7.5 hours (7.5 included), the rest break is half an hour and does not count as working time. This has a practical consequence for covered work:
| Plan element | Non-covered work (example) | Work limited to 7.5 hours |
|---|---|---|
| Daily actual work | May exceed 7.5 hours | No more than 7.5 hours |
| Rest break | 1 hour for work exceeding 7.5 hours | Half an hour |
| Time spent at the workplace | For example 9 hours | 8 hours |
| Other work at the end of the shift | Possible within the time limits | Not allowed (Art. 6) |
| Weekly hours | Up to 45 hours; beyond that, overtime under the conditions in the law | 45 hours over 6 days, 37.5 over 5 days; no overtime (Art. 7) |
Example: in a foundry in Kestel running 3 shifts, the melting and casting team works the 06:00–14:00, 14:00–22:00 and 22:00–06:00 shifts. If 7.5 hours of work and a half-hour rest break are planned on each shift, the limit is not exceeded. The problem arises when orders increase: overtime that can be done in the non-covered assembly department cannot be applied to the casting team. The solution for busy periods is to add employees to the shift or to spread the workload over more days.
When building the plan, carry out these checks:
- List by department: Write down which positions are covered, by department and job title. The situation of a forklift operator and a furnace operator working in the same department may differ.
- Rotation: An employee in covered work is not moved to non-covered work during the day so as to exceed the time; Art. 6 explicitly prevents this.
- Timekeeping: Set up the timekeeping system so that overtime cannot be entered for covered positions.
- Handover: Plan the handover between shifts so that it does not take covered employees beyond 7.5 hours.
Common mistakes in metal and machinery businesses
- Treating welders as not covered. Sub-paragraph (l) covers all types of gas-shielded, submerged arc, oxy-fuel and electric welding. A shift plan in which actual work on the welding line exceeds 7.5 hours breaches the regulation.
- Leaving noise measurements out of date. Exposure may have changed in a department where a new press or compressor has been added; without updating the measurement, you cannot assume you fall outside the noise sub-paragraph.
- Forgetting the notification. For a newly opened electroplating or casting department, written notification to the İŞKUR provincial directorate is made before work starts.
- "Voluntary" overtime in busy periods. The employee's consent does not remove the ban in Art. 7.
- Not linking it to the risk assessment. Covered work should be matched to the exposure lines in the risk assessment. This link is also the basis for job-specific measures such as those in our articles on safety in foundries and welders' risks.
Are we covered? What to do when in doubt
Under Art. 9 of the regulation, objections as to whether a job is listed in Art. 4 or 5, and applications for jobs not on the list, are decided by the Ministry. In reaching its decision, the Ministry takes into account the properties of the substances used, the technology applied and the collective protection measures taken, and obtains the opinion of the Ministry of Health. This shows that an enclosed automatic line and an open workshop may be assessed differently under the same sub-paragraph heading.
The route to follow for positions you are unsure about:
- Write down the job description and the work actually done.
- Document exposure with measurement results (noise, dust, chemicals).
- List the collective protection measures applied.
- If the outcome is still unclear, apply to the Ministry and apply the limit until a decision is made.
Health surveillance of employees in covered work is also planned according to exposure; our article on periodic examinations and tests explains this plan. In our OHS specialist service we match covered positions to the risk assessment, and in our workplace physician service we set the examination intervals for these employees. For other sector-specific topics see our metal and machinery page, and to see your obligations and time limits use the OHS obligations calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours a day can welders work?
Under sub-paragraph (l) of Art. 4 of the regulation, daily working time in gas-shielded, submerged arc, oxy-fuel and electric welding is no more than 7.5 hours. No overtime may be added to this, and once the time is up the employee may not be put on other work.
Can work limited to 7.5 hours be done on Saturdays?
Yes, as long as weekly hours do not exceed 45. Six days of 7.5 hours make 45 hours in total. However, overtime above 45 hours is prohibited in this work.
By which measurement is noisy work determined?
The regulation covers work exceeding 85 dB(A) as an 8-hour effective exposure value. The exposure measurement carried out by an authorised laboratory is the basis for this. Without an up-to-date measurement, it is difficult to show that you fall outside this sub-paragraph.
Where is the notification made?
The employer of a workplace where covered work is carried out continuously gives written notice, before the work starts, to the provincial directorate of the Turkish Employment Agency to which the workplace belongs. The notice includes the type and nature of the work, when it is carried out and the numbers of women and men employees.
A certified specialist matched to your hazard class: site inspections, approved logbook, training plan, annual plan and report follow-up.
Bursa SİSTEMER OSGB Technical Team — written from the field experience of our OHS specialists and workplace physicians. Legal information is valid as of the publication/update date; contact us for an assessment specific to your business.