An Evaluation on the Working Hours of Academic Staff According to Judicial Decisions

Abstract

In today's world, the importance of education at the higher education level has reached a very important level. With this understanding, higher education institutions have become widespread in developing or developed countries. So much so that it was not deemed sufficient to continue this activity by the state. In addition, efforts are being made to provide higher education through private law legal entities. Due to their importance, it was aimed to provide higher education and higher education institutions with a secure system by including them in the Constitution. Many issues such as the status of higher education institutions, the rights and obligations of personnel are generally set out in the Constitution. However, there is no regulation in either the Constitution or the legislation as to whether academic staff, who are the subject of this article, have working hours like civil servants. As a result, various problems have arisen in practice. The legal gap was tried to be filled with the instructions of the institution heads. So much so that the legal gap became a matter of debate, taken to court and was reflected in the media. In this study, it will be discussed whether academic staff have working hours and, if so, in what form. If there is no working hour regulation, whether the institution's heads can regulate the working hours of the academic staff, and what the legal consequences of this will be if the academic staff does not comply with the working hours’ regulation. In case of disciplinary punishment, its legal value will be evaluated and discussed together with precedent judicial decisions.