Timesheet disputes in Türkiye: how attendance records become evidence

What is a timesheet dispute, and why settle it at the record?

A timesheet dispute is an employee reporting that a day’s clock-in, clock-out, break, overtime or absence record is wrong. With a hand-kept timesheet the dispute usually arrives at month end, after payroll: nobody remembers who saw what that day, and once a spreadsheet cell has been overwritten, the old value is gone too. The dispute is left to the word of each side.

Settling the dispute at the record itself, while it is fresh, gains three things: it is clear which evidence was examined, the decision is written with its reason, and any correction leaves a trail. If the same record later reaches a mediation session or a lawsuit, the dispute and the answer given are part of that record too.

Dispute topics: which record to check, what changes on acceptance

Each dispute topic has its own evidence to check. The table below summarises the most common disputes, the record to examine and what changes in the timesheet if the dispute is accepted.

The table summarises a method; which records are kept depends on your system. The rule is the same in every case: a correction never deletes the old value, it is written next to it.

The timesheet dispute process in five steps

• 1. Show the employee the evidence. Before disputing, the employee should be able to see that day’s record: time, location, breaks, requests and any changes made to the record. An employee who sees the evidence often realises alone whether the dispute is justified.
• 2. Take the dispute in writing. Topic, explanation and the correct time if known. A verbal dispute is forgotten; a written one carries its date.
• 3. Freeze the evidence at the moment of the dispute. If the record changes during the review, it becomes unclear what was disputed. If the evidence at that moment is kept, the reviewer sees that record and today’s record side by side.
• 4. Decide with a reason. Accept, partly accept or reject; with a reason, and with the employee informed. A dispute left unanswered is the record that is hardest to explain later.
• 5. Correct with a trail. The old value, the new value, who changed it, when and why are recorded. An approved month is not changed silently; the period is first reopened with a reason.

One more principle: nobody should decide their own dispute or correct their own record. A decision made in one’s own favour is far harder to defend later than a reasoned decision made by someone else.

Are attendance records evidence? The evidential value of electronic records

Under Article 199 of the Turkish Code of Civil Procedure (HMK), written texts, photographs and data in electronic form suitable to prove the disputed facts are documents. Article 205/2 of the same Code treats electronic data created with a secure electronic signature as having the force of a deed. Timesheet and clock-in records usually do not carry such a signature; so they are not deeds but documents whose weight is left to the court’s discretion. Where needed, the court may refer to an expert.

With a document weighed at discretion, the real question is whether the record is reliable. When the other party, an expert or the court looks at an attendance record, these questions may come up:

• Whose clock is it? The employee’s phone clock, or the clock of the server that took the record? A device clock can be changed by hand.
• Are changes traceable? If a record was corrected, are the old value, who corrected it, when and why visible? A single untraceable correction can make the whole record look doubtful.
• Could the employee see the record? The silence of an employee who could see their own record and had an open dispute channel does not read the same as that of an employee who never saw it.
• Were disputes answered? A reasoned answer shows the employer took the dispute seriously; an unanswered dispute may be read against the employer.
• Did the document change afterwards? If a digest (seal) of the content is kept with the document, one can check whether the same digest comes out when the same records are produced again.

The answers depend on how the system works, not on how the case will end: a record can be submitted as evidence, and the assessment is the court’s. The record is evidence for the employee too; the dispute itself shows that the employee disputed it on that date.

Mediation and litigation: how attendance records are presented

Under Article 3 of the Labour Courts Law No. 7036, for claims and compensation of an employee or employer based on law or an individual or collective agreement, and for reinstatement claims, having applied to a mediator is a precondition for filing suit. Claims arising from the timesheet — overtime, weekly rest or wage differences — therefore usually reach the mediation table first; that is where the records are first discussed.

In litigation, HMK Article 219 requires the parties to submit the documents they rely on and hold; electronic documents are submitted as printouts and, on request, saved electronically in a form suitable for examination. If a party ordered to submit a document fails to do so within the time given and shows no acceptable excuse, the court may, depending on the circumstances, accept the other party’s statement about the document’s content (HMK Article 220).

• Prepare an export per person and month. All clock-ins and clock-outs of that month, change history, breaks, requests and decisions, disputes and the timesheet approval in one document.
• Keep the document’s digest. If a digest computed from the export’s content (e.g. SHA-256) is kept with the file name, a “the document was altered” claim can be checked against an export reproduced from the same records.
• Preserve the electronic original. Even when a printout is submitted, the electronic records must be ready for examination on request; a summary copied into a spreadsheet does not replace them.
• Do not destroy the disputed day’s evidence. The routine destruction schedule must be suspendable for records under dispute; write this decision into your personal data retention and destruction policy.

Can employees see their own records?

Article 11 of the Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK) gives the data subject the right to learn whether their personal data is processed and, if so, to request information about it. Clock-in, location and photo records are the employee’s personal data; letting employees see their own records and export them makes exercising this right easier.

Visibility has its own limits: employees see their own day’s evidence, but other people’s data such as managers’ IP addresses, or absence explanations that may contain health information, are not shown on every screen. A company may set a time limit for its internal dispute channel; that limit covers only the channel. The Labour Law sets no separate time limit for disputing a timesheet inside the company, and not disputing internally does not remove the employee’s legal rights.

Six common mistakes in timesheet disputes

• Overwriting the cell and moving on. A time corrected in a spreadsheet loses its old value; every correction in that table becomes doubtful.
• Leaving the dispute unanswered. A dispute sent by e-mail or chat message is not in the record, but it is in the employee’s hands.
• Deciding one’s own dispute. A manager’s own record or own dispute should be assessed by another authorised person.
• Changing an approved month silently. Reopening a month that has gone to payroll is a decision and must be recorded with its reason.
• Trusting the device clock. A phone’s or terminal’s clock can be changed by hand; the clock of the server that takes the record should prevail.
• Leaving the evidence to the destruction schedule. If the disputed day’s photo or location is deleted when the routine period ends, the most concrete evidence of the dispute is lost.

In our workforce management system these steps are spread across screens: the employee sees each day’s evidence in My Records and files a dispute, the evidence at that moment is sealed, management decides with a reason, a correction is recorded with old and new value, reason and IP address, and a SHA-256 sealed record export is produced per person and month. More: timesheet software.

This guide is for information only and is not legal or payroll advice. In a specific dispute consult a lawyer; your collective agreement or employment contract may contain additional terms.