Turkey has enacted new regulations granting all male and female civil servants the right to work part-time following the birth or adoption of a child, up until the child begins primary school, a move the government says aims to strengthen family bonds and address demographic challenges, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The regulation, published in the Official Gazette on Friday, expands previously limited part-time work provisions and is expected to benefit between 20,000 and 30,000 public employees in its initial phase, according to the Ministry of Family and Social Services.
Speaking following a cabinet meeting on Thursday evening, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan praised the regulation, linking it to the government’s pro-family policies.
“This arrangement will allow parents to spend more time on their children’s development and will directly contribute to strengthening family bonds,” he said.
Under the new rules, civil servants governed by Law No. 657, including both mothers and fathers, can request part-time work after completing their maternity, paternity or unpaid leave.
Employees will be permitted to work up to three days a week, or no more than half the standard weekly hours and will receive 50 percent of their regular salary and benefits.
The policy is explicitly gender-neutral, allowing both parents to benefit, even simultaneously if they are both employed in the public sector. Adoption cases are also covered: Adoptive parents can apply for part-time work from the date the child is placed with them until the child reaches primary school age.
While the reform expands access to part-time arrangements, some exclusions apply. Civil servants in managerial positions equivalent to or above branch director, as well as those stationed abroad, are not eligible.
Employees using the part-time option will not be assigned work outside their designated hours, nor during lunch breaks. Additionally, breastfeeding leave will not be granted to women already working part-time.
The right to part-time work ends under specific circumstances: if the child dies, if the adoption is annulled, if the child begins primary school or if the employee opts to return to full-time work.
Previously, only around 1,000 civil servants had access to similar arrangements. The government says the new regulation marks a significant step toward family-friendly labor policy in the public sector.
President Erdoğan has repeatedly urged Turkish families to have “at least three children,” despite the country’s deepening economic crisis, declining birth rates and rising youth unemployment.
In January President Erdoğan declared 2025 the “Year of the Family” and unveiled financial incentives to encourage larger families, including support for newlyweds and low-income parents.
In a speech delivered in May, he went further, announcing that 2026 would mark the beginning of the “Decade of the Family,” signaling a long-term policy commitment to reversing Turkey’s steadily declining birth rate.
Official figures show Turkey’s birthrate has fallen from 2.38 children per woman in 2001 to 1.48 in 2025, lower than in France, Britain or the United States, in what Erdoğan, a 71-year-old Islamist and father of four, has denounced as “a disaster.”
Erdoğan stresses the urgency of reversing the population trend, warning that if the necessary measures are not taken in a timely manner, the problem will reach “irreparable proportions.”
But his pleas for women to have at least three children and offers of financial incentives for newlyweds may not be enough as Turkey grapples with a deepening economic crisis.
Turkish households have been struggling with rising prices for years. Official figures show annual inflation hit 35 percent in June, while an independent group of economists known as ENAG put the rate at more than 68 percent.
Meanwhile, the Turkish lira has lost over 75 percent of its value against the US dollar since 2021. It recently fell past 40 lira to the dollar for the first time, making imports more expensive and squeezing consumer purchasing power further.