Turkey’s Top Court Nixes Teacher Penalties in Union Protest Case—Ruling Hits Education Board
Turkey’s Constitutional Court has struck down disciplinary punishments against teachers who refused lunchtime supervision duties, ruling the action was protected union activity and the penalties unlawful.
The decision, stemming from a case brought by the education union Eğitim Sen, means the teachers’ collective refusal—carried out in line with the union’s directive—was a legitimate form of protest, not a breach of duty [1]. In a separate but related legal win for educators, a local administrative court in Mardin suspended a district education board’s rejection of a school counselor’s request to adjust her teaching schedule for graduate studies, ordering the authority to reconsider because it failed to provide concrete justification [2].
The Constitutional Court’s ruling sets a binding precedent, effectively barring school administrations from punishing staff for following union-backed collective actions. The Mardin court’s suspension, meanwhile, forces the Midyat District Education Directorate to re-evaluate the counselor’s timetable request while the case proceeds, allowing her to continue postgraduate work in the interim [2]. Both rulings underscore judicial pushback against administrative overreach in Turkey’s education sector, with courts demanding specific reasoning for denials and recognizing union solidarity as a protected right [1][2].