Was Carrier Screening (Portör Muayenesi) Abolished? Health Reports for Restaurant and Cafe Staff in Türkiye

Yes, for food and mass-catering workplaces the periodic screening model was dropped. Article 126 of the Umumi Hıfzıssıhha Kanunu (General Public Hygiene Law, Law No. 1593) was amended in 2011 by Decree-Law No. 663. The current text requires owners and operators of food production and sales places and mass-catering places (restaurants, cafes, canteens) to give employees hygiene training or have them take it, and to employ only people who have completed it. Employees are obliged to take the training too.

The implementing rules come from the Hijyen Eğitimi Yönetmeliği (Hygiene Training Regulation), issued jointly by the Ministries of Health, Interior, and Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Official Gazette, 5 July 2013, No. 28698). Today "portör muayenesi" is better understood as the name of the old regime than a current type of health report.

Under the Hygiene Training Regulation, restaurants and similar food service places count as retail workplaces and are in scope. The core rules:

• •People without a certificate issued by the Ministry of National Education's Lifelong Learning General Directorate may not be employed in these workplaces (Art. 5).
• •The owner and operator are primarily responsible for staff training and for employing only certified people. An owner who works in the business must take the training as well (Art. 5).
• •The training lasts at least eight hours and the certificate is issued through the e-yaygın system (Art. 6).
• •The certificate is valid as long as the person works in the field; there is no annual renewal (Art. 6).

The Gıda Hijyeni Yönetmeliği (Food Hygiene Regulation, Official Gazette 17 December 2011, No. 28145) also requires the food business operator to make sure staff receive hygiene training suited to their work. The two rules complement each other; the first document to have on file is the hygiene training certificate.

This is the rule that actually operates on the health side today. Under Art. 9 of the Hygiene Training Regulation, people in the following situations may not work or be employed in these workplaces until a report shows they have recovered or are no longer contagious:

• •People with a foodborne illness, carriers of such an illness and people with diarrhea.
• •People with open or infected wounds, skin infections or visible lesions that may disgust the public on exposed parts of the body; people with leprosy, syphilis or tuberculosis.
• •People with an illness listed in the Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Control Regulation that could pose a public health problem if hygiene rules are not followed.

Employees must tell the employer about their illness (Art. 9/2). To return to work, a physician or specialist report must show recovery or the absence of contagiousness (Art. 10). The same principle is in the statute: Art. 126 of Law No. 1593 says people documented as having a communicable disease cannot work until a report shows recovery.

Article 17 of the Food Hygiene Regulation points the same way: a person with a foodborne illness, an infected wound, a skin infection, pain or diarrhea who may transmit it must not be allowed contact with food, handling of food or entry to food-handling areas. In practice, a kitchen worker with diarrhea or a barista with an infected facial wound should be moved away from food areas, with or without a report.

Even though the food-specific report is gone, a general duty applies to every employer. Under Article 15 of the İş Sağlığı ve Güvenliği Kanunu (Occupational Health and Safety Law, Law No. 6331), the employer must put employees under health surveillance, taking into account the health and safety risks they face at work. Medical exams must be provided at hiring, on a job change, on return after a work accident, occupational disease or repeated sick leave (if the employee requests it) and at regular intervals set by the Ministry while the job continues.

• •Periodic exam frequency depends on the hazard class. Under the Regulation on the Duties, Authority, Responsibilities and Training of Workplace Physicians and Other Health Personnel, exams are held at least every five years in low-hazard work, every three years in hazardous work and every year in very hazardous work; the workplace physician can shorten these periods.
• •According to Annex 1 of the Workplace Hazard Class Communiqué, restaurants and cafes are generally in the low-hazard class. Some entertainment-oriented lines such as bars, taverns and casinos may be in the hazardous class. Confirm your own class from your NACE code and workplace registration.
• •People who will work in hazardous and very hazardous jobs cannot start work without a health report showing they are fit for the job (Art. 15/2).
• •Reports are normally issued by the workplace physician; for low-hazard workplaces with fewer than 50 employees they may also come from public service providers or family doctors (Art. 15/3).
• •The cost of health surveillance is borne by the employer and cannot be passed on to the employee (Art. 15/4). Employee health information is kept confidential (Art. 15/5).

Under Art. 11 of the Hygiene Training Regulation, the ministry or local authority that handles permits, approvals, registration and licensing for the workplace (for example the municipality or the provincial or district Agriculture and Forestry directorate) checks compliance with the certificate and illness rules. On occupational health and safety, labour inspectors of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security carry out inspections. In practice, inspectors ask for:

• •A hygiene training certificate for every employee.
• •Evidence that staff with a work-barring illness are not employed and that a physician's report was obtained before they returned.
• •Pre-employment exam forms and the periodic exam schedule.
• •Personal hygiene practice in food areas: clean clothing, hand hygiene and covered wounds.

One important detail: each employee who is missing a certificate or works in breach of the rules is counted as a separate violation, so ten uncertified employees mean ten separate actions. The sanction is the administrative fine in Art. 282 of Law No. 1593. Fine amounts are updated by revaluation, so we do not print figures here; check the current official announcement.

A municipal licence and a hygiene certificate do not replace each other. The licence is the permit to open and operate the workplace; the certificate is an individual's qualification. The authority that licenses also checks certificates, so a licensed business with an uncertified employee still faces action. We recommend confirming your situation with your municipality and your accountant.