Working life country profile for Cyprus
This profile describes the key characteristics of working life in Cyprus. It aims to provide the relevant background information on the structures, institutions, actors and relevant regulations regarding working life.
This includes indicators, data and regulatory systems on the following aspects: actors and institutions, collective and individual employment relations, health and well-being, pay, working time, skills and training, and equality and non-discrimination at work. The profiles are systematically updated every two years.
‘Individual employment relations’ refers to the relationship between the individual worker and their employer. This relationship is shaped by legal regulation and by the outcomes of social partner negotiations over terms and conditions. This section looks at the start and termination of the employment relationship and entitlements and obligations in Cyprus.
Requirements regarding an employment contract
The employment relationship is not regulated by legislation. However, some legal regulations apply concerning the protection of young people in employment.
The minimum working age is 18 years and it is regulated by Law 48(I)/2001 on the protection of young people at work. The main purpose of Law 48(I)/2001 is to protect people under the age of 18 at work. The basic provisions of the relevant legislation are the following.
It prohibits the employment of children.
It lays down the hours of work, the daily and weekly rest and the night-work restrictions for children and adolescents.
It regulates the placement of children under combined work and training programmes. It sets the general obligations of employers in this regard.
It specifies prohibited types of employment.
It prescribes the offences and penalties.
Dismissal and termination procedures
In terms of dismissals and termination procedures, the core legislation is Law 24/1967 on the termination of employment and Law 28(I)/2001 on collective redundancies.
As far as the termination of employment is concerned, the purpose of Law 24/1967 is to protect employees against dismissal. Law 24/1967 covers all employees, whether in the private or the public sector, including apprentices. It also covers the shareholders of private companies who are employed by their companies. Employees of the UK government and of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes working in Cyprus are exempted from the provisions of the specific legislation. Under Law 24/1967, an employer intending to terminate the employment of an employee who has completed at least 26 weeks of continuous employment with that employer is obliged to give the employee a minimum period of notice, depending on the length of the employee’s service, as provided by the law. In Cyprus, every dismissal is considered unfair unless the employer proves otherwise. For more information on individual dismissal procedures, the reader can consult the termination of employment guide of the MLSI (undated).
In the case of collective redundancies, the purpose of Law 28(I)/2001 is to protect employees in the event of collective redundancies. A minimum of 21 people must be employed in the establishment for the company to fall within the remit of the law. To fall within the scope of the legislation, employers must be planning to dismiss or make redundant 10 or more employees within 30 days in enterprises with 21–100 employees, 10% of the workforce in enterprises with 101–299 employees and 30% of the workforce in enterprises employing 300 employees or more.
Civil servants, workers employed by semi-governmental organisations, local authorities or legal entities covered by public law, seamen and workers on fixed-term contracts are exempt from the legislation.
Parental, maternity and paternity leave
In August 2017, paid paternity leave of two weeks was introduced, in addition to maternity and parental leave. Furthermore, there was a significant development in the relevant legislation in 2022, which was brought by harmonisation with the EU Directive on Work–Life Balance. The new paternity leave, parental care, force majeure and flexible working arrangements law was enacted in December 2022 and it abrogated the previous laws on parental leave, force majeure and paternity leave. This law allows for flexible work arrangements – that is, employees who have children up to eight years of age have the possibility of adjusting their form of employment, through, among other things, telework, flexible hours or reduced working hours. They also have the right to request to return to their original form of employment before the end of the agreed period for which flexible arrangements were made. Note that the changes brought by this law led to the update of the laws regarding termination of employment, social security, annual leave and the equal treatment of men and women in the workplace.
Statutory leave arrangements
| Maternity leave | |
| Maximum duration | Maternity leave is currently set at 18 consecutive weeks, of which 11 are considered mandatory. It must be used in the following way: two weeks before the expected week of birth and nine weeks after the birth. As of November 2021, maternity leave was increased by four weeks for a second childbirth or the adoption of a second child, including through surrogacy, and by eight weeks for a third or subsequent childbirth or the acquisition of a third or later child by adoption or surrogacy. |
| Reimbursement | The weekly rate of maternity allowance is equal to 72% of the weekly value of the insurance point of the insured person’s basic insurance in the relevant contribution year. |
| Who pays? | The Social Security Fund (Ταμείο Κοινωνικών Ασφαλίσεων) – but the employer can pay part of it if so desired; however, this condition is not explicitly provided by the relevant legislation. |
| Legal basis | Protection of Maternity Law (Law 100(I)/1997) |
| Parental leave | |
| Maximum duration | Every working parent who has completed six months of continuous service with the same employer is entitled to parental leave. The total duration of parental leave is up to 18 weeks for each child under the age of eight years, adopted child under the age of 12 years or child with a disability under the age of 18 years, and is 23 weeks in the case of a widowed parent. Parental leave is taken with a minimum duration of one week and a maximum duration of five weeks per calendar year; following the relevant application by an employee, parental leave may alternatively be granted in a flexible manner, provided that the right to receive parental leave in flexible ways is limited to the possibility of receiving it with a minimum period of one day. Moreover, provided that, on the date of submission of the application, the parent has completed 12 months of employment within the last 24 months, during the eight weeks of parental leave, they receive a parental leave allowance. In the case of a child with a disability, the duration of the parental leave allowance is extended by:
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| Reimbursement | The weekly amount of the benefit amounts to 72% of the weekly value of the insurance point of the insured person’s basic insurance in the relevant year of contributions, and 60% of the weekly value of the number of insurance points of the insured person’s supplementary insurance of the relevant tax year. |
| Who pays? | The Social Security Fund. In addition, a small number of enterprise collective agreements may provide for part of the parental leave on a full pay basis (for instance, the French School of Nicosia). |
| Legal basis | The Leave (Paternity, Parental, Caring, Force Majeure) and Flexible Work Arrangements for the Work–Life Balance Law of 2022 (Law 216(I)/2022) |
| Paternity leave | |
| Maximum duration | Every working father is entitled to paternity leave of two consecutive weeks and can take it from the birth of the child up to two weeks after the end of the maternity leave. He receives it when he has a child with a natural mother, with a surrogate mother or through the adoption of a child up to 12 years old. The father is also entitled to paternity leave in the event of a stillbirth and, if the mother dies before or during childbirth or during maternity leave, the right to paternity leave increases with the remaining weeks of maternity leave that the mother would have been entitled to if she had not died. |
| Reimbursement | The weekly rate of paternity allowance is equal to 72% of the weekly value of the insurance point of the insured person’s basic insurance in the relevant contribution year. |
| Who pays? | The Social Security Fund – but the employer can pay part of it if so desired; however, this condition is not explicitly provided for under the relevant legislation. |
| Legal basis | The Leave (Paternity, Parental, Caring, Force Majeure) and Flexible Work Arrangements for the Work–Life Balance Law of 2022 (Law 216(I)/2022) |
Sick leave
Under Cyprus law, there is no statutory obligation on the employer to pay sick pay. When an employer does not enter into a specific arrangement with its employees about sick pay, the sickness benefit is covered by the Social Insurance Scheme (Σχέδιο Κοινωνικών Ασφαλίσεων), which is applicable to all those who are entitled to this benefit, irrespective of the applicant’s age. Nevertheless, under the existing system, the sickness benefit is paid to employees and self-employed people aged between 16 and 63 years who are incapacitated for work. People who do not satisfy the insurance conditions for entitlement to an old-age pension at 63 years of age are entitled to a benefit up to the required date, but never after the age of 65. The weekly rate of sickness benefit is the same as that of the unemployment benefit and is calculated in the same way.
Retirement age
From 2008 to 2012, a significant reform of the pension system took place in three distinct phases, as part of a wider reform of the social insurance system aiming to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the system. During the first phase (which was completed in 2009), a number of measures were put forward that aimed primarily to increase revenue through higher contributions. During the second and third phases, a number of measures were introduced as part of the country-specific recommendations and the memorandum of understanding. In the context of these reforms, the general retirement age is set at 65 years in the private sector. Employees who have accumulated sufficient social security rights can still take their pension at the age of 63; however, if they do so, a penalty is imposed amounting to 0.5% for every month they take their pension before the age of 65. In the public sector, the retirement age was gradually increased from the age of 60 to 65 years. In the social security reform of 2012, the retirement age was linked to the increase in life expectancy. According to this provision, a review must take place every five years. The first review will reflect the change of life expectancy from 2018 to 2023.
Retirement age is gender neutral.
