Purpose: Teachers' expressing candid and natural emotions during teaching and learning processes is of vital importance for the quality and content of education. Because of that reason, it is necessary to explore factors that have a role in teachers' emotional labour. Therefore, the current study aims to test a novel model developed to explore the direct and indirect relations among distributed leadership, teacher autonomy and emotional labour. Design/methodology/approach: The study data came from 1,007 teachers working at 81 state high schools located in 12 different regions in Turkey. To test the proposed model, the authors conducted a mediation analysis of structural equation modelling. Findings: The analysis confirms that teacher autonomy is a prominent mediator in the relationship between distributed leadership and emotional labour. Originality/value: This study is expected to contribute to the body of research focusing on the effects of leadership on teachers' emotional labour.