Employment and labour law in Cyprus

Cyprus Employment Law is a combination of common laws and statutes that govern the relationship between an employer and employee. Since employment is regarded as a contract, the standard principles of contract law underlie all employment agreements in Cyprus.

As such, it is understood that both parties freely and willingly agreed to the terms and conditions of the contract. Several statutory regulations and obligations, such as the Termination of Employment Law of 1967 and collective agreements, complement the common law to protect employee rights.

Employee rights safeguarded by the Statute

In addition to honouring contract law, employers must uphold all employees' constitutional rights, including the right to work, strike, and be treated equally in the workplace.

Several statutes related to employment exist in Cyprus to safeguard workers' rights. The most important is the Termination of Employment Law of 1967. Others include:

• The Social Insurance Law of 2010 (59(I)/2010),
• The Annual Paid Leave Law of 1967,
• The Protection of Maternity Law of 1997,
• The Health and Safety at Work Law of 1996,
• The Collective Redundancies Law of 2001,
• The Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation Law of 2004, and
• The Minimum Wages Law, Cap. 183.

If you suffered an injury at work, our personal injury lawyers can advise you on a claim.

Employers must also inform employees of conditions related to the employment relationship or any changes to those conditions.

Employment contracts

In Cyprus, an employment contract is binding whether it is written or oral. The Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Law of 2023 (25(I)/2023) still requires the employer to give the main terms in writing. The basic terms, among them the job, the place of work, the start date, any probation period, the pay and the working hours, reach the employee within seven calendar days of the start date.

The remaining terms, such as paid leave and the notice and termination procedure, follow within one month. They can sit in the contract or in separate documents, on paper or in electronic form, and the employer keeps proof that the employee received them.

Statutory and common law rights and obligations apply to all employment contracts. This is irrespective of whether they are mentioned in the agreement. Some employee rights include the following:

• Average weekly working time, overtime included, is limited to 48 hours, with an opt-out the employee can agree to.
• Parents are entitled to maternity and parental leave.
• Maternity leave lasts 22 weeks, or 26 weeks from the third birth.
• All employees have the right to be paid equally for equal work done.
• A national minimum wage covers most employees, with a few sectors excluded.

Termination of Employment Law in Cyprus

The most important employment law statute in Cyprus is the Termination of Employment Law. It regulates the termination of employment and protects employees against dismissal. This law applies to all employees, regardless of whether they work in the private or public sector.

In an unfair dismissal claim before the Labour Disputes Court, the employer must prove that the dismissal was for one of the reasons the law allows. If it cannot, the dismissal is unfair, and an employee with at least 26 weeks of continuous service is normally entitled to compensation.

Employers are not lawfully entitled to terminate an employment contract in certain circumstances. For instance, your employer legally can't fire you for being a trade union or safety committee member. Nor can you be dismissed for filing a complaint in good faith.

Employers are entitled to terminate an employment agreement and dismiss the employee in the following scenarios lawfully:

• An employee's work performance is not up to standard.
• A role has become redundant.
• Force majeure, war, civil unrest, natural disasters, or an act of God.
• Non-renewal at the end of a fixed period.
• An employee is subject to summary dismissal based on their conduct.
• The relationship between the employee and employer cannot be expected to continue due to the employee's conduct.
• An employee commits serious misconduct or a criminal offence in the course of their duties, or behaves indecently at work.
• An employee repeatedly violates or ignores the terms of employment.

Notice periods

According to the Termination of Employment Law of 1967, employers are required to provide adequate notice of termination. The notice period varies with the length of service:

Length of continuous service	Minimum notice
26 to 52 weeks	1 week
52 to 104 weeks	2 weeks
104 to 156 weeks	4 weeks
156 to 208 weeks	5 weeks
208 to 259 weeks	6 weeks
260 to 311 weeks	7 weeks
312 weeks or more	8 weeks

No notice is needed when either side ends the employment during or at the end of an agreed probation period.

Redundancy and the Redundancy Fund

Redundancy in Cyprus is strictly regulated under the Termination of Employment Law (Law 24/1967). An employee is legally classified as redundant when their dismissal is driven by operational necessities rather than personal conduct or performance.

Legitimate statutory grounds for redundancy include business closure, relocation, modernisation, automation, or significant economic difficulties resulting in a permanent reduction of necessary roles.

The Redundancy Fund mechanism

Redundancy payments in Cyprus come from the state Redundancy Fund, not from the employer. The Fund is financed entirely by employers, who pay 1.2% of each employee's earnings up to the annual insurable earnings ceiling. The Social Insurance Services pay the claim, so the employee's statutory amount does not depend on the employer's finances.

Eligibility and progressive compensation

To qualify for a redundancy payment from the Fund, an employee must have completed at least 104 weeks (2 years) of continuous service with the same employer.

Statutory compensation is calculated on a progressive scale based on the length of continuous service and the employee's final wages:

• Years 1 to 4 of service: 2 weeks' wages for each year.
• Years 5 to 10: 2.5 weeks' wages for each year.
• Years 11 to 15: 3 weeks' wages for each year.
• Years 16 to 20: 3.5 weeks' wages for each year.
• Years 21 to 25: 4 weeks' wages for each year.

The scale stops at 25 years of service, and a final part-year of 26 weeks or more counts as a full year. Weekly pay above four times the weekly basic insurable earnings under the Social Insurance Law is not counted, and the Minister can raise that limit by decree. For a higher earner, each week of the scale is paid at the capped amount.

Mandatory procedural requirements

The employer gives notice of an intended redundancy to the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance at least one month before the dismissals, on form Y.K.A. 608. The notice states how many employees are affected, their occupations, the parts of the business concerned and the reasons for the redundancy.

Maternity and family leave rights

Cyprus' Protection of Maternity Law of 1997 guarantees leave for female employees, while the Leave and Flexible Working Arrangements for Work-Life Balance Law of 2022 guarantees paternity and parental leave.

Mothers are entitled to 22 consecutive weeks of maternity leave, and 26 weeks from the third birth on. A multiple birth adds four weeks for each extra child. Eleven of those weeks are compulsory, starting two weeks before the week the baby is due. Fathers are entitled to two consecutive weeks of paternity leave, taken between the week of birth and two weeks after the maternity leave ends.

The Protection of Maternity Law does not oblige the employer to pay wages during maternity leave. The mother receives maternity allowance from Social Insurance instead, and the father receives paternity benefit for his two weeks of leave.

An employee who has told her employer in writing that she is pregnant is protected, with limited exceptions, from the start of the pregnancy until five months after her maternity leave ends. In that period the employer cannot give her notice or dismiss her, and cannot take steps to replace her permanently. Prenatal check-ups that fall in working hours are paid time off.

For maternity benefits, read more on the website of the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance: Guide to Maternity Allowance and Childbirth Allowance (in Greek).

For more information on paternity benefits, please visit this page on the ministry's website: Application for Paternity Benefit (in Greek).

Minimum wage

For most employment agreements, the employer and employee negotiate a salary.

The Council of Ministers may set a minimum wage for any profession by ministerial order.

From 1 January 2026, the national minimum gross monthly wage in Cyprus is €979 on hiring, rising to €1,088 after six months of continuous employment. Part-time employees receive the same rate in proportion to their hours.

The decree excludes domestic workers, workers in agriculture and livestock farming, workers in the maritime sector and hotel employees. Hotel employees have their own rates under the Minimum Wages in the Hotel Industry Decree of 2025.

Cyprus has transitioned to a universal statutory minimum wage covering most sectors, replacing the previous occupation-specific minimum wage orders. The national amount is periodically reviewed by the government.

Discrimination

Cyprus law protects employees against discrimination at work on grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age and sexual orientation. The Termination of Employment Law adds that colour, family status, political opinion and national or social origin are never valid reasons for a dismissal. Unequal pay based on sex is prohibited explicitly in Cyprus, where workers are entitled to equal compensation for equal work. 

The law also protects employees who file sexual harassment complaints. A Gender Equality Inspector or the Ombudsman (Commissioner for Administration and the Protection of Human Rights) should investigate sexual harassment complaints.

In the event of unfairness, employees have two options. Depending on the nature of the discrimination, they may file a civil claim or a complaint with the relevant authorities.

In a sex discrimination case, the Labour Disputes Court awards compensation covering at least the actual loss and back pay, with any moral damage and interest, and orders reinstatement after a discriminatory dismissal where the employee asks for it. For racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age or sexual orientation, the court awards fair compensation covering at least the actual loss, with interest.

Part-time and fixed-term employees have the same protection against less favourable treatment. Part-time workers are entitled to the same salary and benefits as full-time employees fulfilling the same duties. Employers should pay part-time workers a proportionate amount based on the number of hours worked.

Working hours, rest and annual leave

Under the Organisation of Working Time Law of 2002 (63(I)/2002), working time cannot exceed 48 hours a week on average, overtime included, measured over four months. An employee can agree to work longer. Refusing cannot cost the employee anything, and the employer keeps a record of everyone who has agreed for the labour inspectors. Laws or regulations with better terms for employees take priority.

Shop employees have their own limits under the Shops Law of 2006 (155(I)/2006): a normal day of eight hours and a normal week of 38, with overtime only with the employee's consent, up to two hours a day and eight a week.

Every employee is entitled to at least 11 consecutive hours of rest in each 24-hour period and an uninterrupted rest of 24 hours each week. The employer may instead grant two separate 24-hour rest periods, or one rest of 48 hours, in every 14 days. A working day longer than six hours carries a break of at least 15 minutes.

Night workers cannot work more than eight hours in 24 on average, measured over one month or another period set by collective agreement. Where night work carries special hazards or heavy physical or mental strain, the limit is eight hours in any 24-hour period in which the employee works at night, with no averaging.

Under the Annual Paid Leave Law of 1967 (8/1967), an employee who has worked at least 48 weeks in the leave year is entitled to 20 working days of paid annual leave on a five-day week, or 24 working days on a six-day week. The minimum leave can be paid out in money only when the employment ends.