Both sides of the employment relationship
Discuss residence or employmentWe reply within one business day. Scope and fees are agreed before work starts.
In short
- Visas, citizenship, work permits, family reunification and asylum procedures.
- Employment contracts, workplace policies, termination and redundancy.
- Advice and representation for employers and employees.
Explore the scope of our work
On immigration we act for individuals and businesses on visas, citizenship applications, work permits, family reunification and asylum procedures. The work is largely about getting an accurate application in on time, because the cost of a refusal is usually the delay rather than the fee.
On employment we act for both employers and employees on contracts, workplace policies, termination and redundancy, and workplace disputes. For employers that includes compliance with labour law, workforce management, compensation and benefits, and discrimination and harassment issues. For employees it includes contract terms, unfair dismissal claims and workplace rights.
Acting for both sides is deliberate. It means we know what the other side will argue.
How to start a first enquiry
Tell us the parties, so we can run a conflict check, a short outline of the matter, and any deadline already running. Please do not send the contract or the application pack until we confirm we can act, then they can come through the right channel.
The work
The framework
The statutes behind the advice
Most employment questions are decided by a handful of provisions, and the deadlines in them are short. These are the ones that come up most.
Termination.
Under section 3(1) of the Termination of Employment Law, 24/1967, an employee continuously employed for at least 26 weeks who is dismissed for a reason other than those in section 5 is entitled to compensation, and the qualifying period can be extended to 104 weeks only by written contract made at the time of hiring. Section 6(1) is what usually decides the case: the termination is presumed not to have been for a section 5 reason until the employer proves otherwise. Compensation is capped at two years' wages, the employer paying up to one year's and the Fund the excess. Where the employer has more than nineteen employees and the dismissal was manifestly unlawful, or unlawful and in bad faith, the Industrial Disputes Court may order re-employment together with compensation for actual loss of up to twelve months' wages. We set the scheme out in termination of employment in Cyprus.
Leave and hours.
Under section 5(1) of the Annual Holidays with Pay Law, 8/1967, annual leave is twenty working days on a five day week and twenty four on a six day week, and section 7(1) requires that it include one continuous period of at least nine days. Section 6(1) keeps public holidays, maternity and paternity leave, days of incapacity through accident or illness, and days of strike or lock-out outside the leave account altogether. The detail is in annual leave and working time.
Maternity.
The Protection of Maternity Law, 100(I)/1997, gives twenty two consecutive weeks of leave, twenty six from a third confinement, and protects the job from the beginning of the pregnancy until five months after the leave ends. Section 4(3) is the provision employers most often meet too late: a dismissal already given is revoked if the employee produces a registered doctor's certificate within five working days, whether or not the employer knew she was pregnant. See maternity protection.
Immigration refusals.
Immigration decisions turn on published criteria rather than on a single statute, but the challenge to a refusal does not. Article 146(3) of the Constitution allows a recourse to the Administrative Court within 75 days, running from publication of the decision or, where it is not published, from the day it came to the applicant's knowledge. That period is the reason we ask for any deadline already running at the first contact. The route is set out in challenging a government decision.
How a matter runs
If a dismissal has just happened, or someone on a permit is changing employer, tell us the date of termination, or what the permission was granted for, at office@kleanthousplatis.com, or the enquiry form. We reply within one business day.
Asked by employers and employees alike
How long do I have to bring a termination claim?
Short enough that it decides cases. The claim goes to the Industrial Disputes Court, and the time limit is the first thing to check on the facts of your own dismissal rather than from a general statement. Tell us the date of termination and the date you were told, because the two are not always the same and the difference has decided claims.
I was employed for five months. Do I have a claim?
Under section 3(1) of the Termination of Employment Law, 24/1967, the entitlement to compensation requires at least 26 weeks of continuous employment, which is about six months. Below that the statutory compensation claim is not available, though other claims may be, and the qualifying period can be extended to 104 weeks only by a written contract made at the time of hiring. If your contract says 104 weeks and was signed later, that is worth checking.
My employer says the dismissal was for redundancy. Do I have to disprove that?
No, and this is the provision that decides most cases. Section 6(1) presumes that the termination was not for a reason in section 5 until the employer proves otherwise. The burden is on the employer to establish the lawful reason it relies on, not on you to disprove it.
How much can be awarded, and who pays it?
Compensation is capped at two years' wages, with the employer paying up to one year's and the Redundancy Fund the excess. Where the employer has more than nineteen employees and the dismissal was manifestly unlawful, or unlawful and in bad faith, the Industrial Disputes Court may order re-employment together with compensation for actual loss of up to twelve months' wages.
How much annual leave is an employee entitled to?
Under section 5(1) of the Annual Holidays with Pay Law, 8/1967, twenty working days on a five day week and twenty four on a six day week. Section 7(1) requires that the leave include one continuous period of at least nine days, so a year taken entirely in single days does not comply. Section 6(1) keeps public holidays, maternity and paternity leave, days of incapacity through accident or illness, and days of strike or lock-out outside the leave account altogether.
Does a work permit follow the employee or the employer?
In the ordinary case the permission is tied to the employment it was granted for, which is why a change of employer is a permit question and not only a contract question. Tell us who the employer is, what the permission was granted for and when it expires, before anyone resigns or is dismissed.
From first contact to implementation
Every matter is different, but the route is broadly the same. Knowing it in advance makes the cost and the timetable easier to judge.
First contact and conflict check
Review of the contract, the application pack or the decision, and any deadline already running
Engagement and fee agreement before any work begins
Assessment of the position and the realistic outcomes, including the cost of each
Submission or negotiation, or an appeal where a decision has already been made
Documentation of the contract, the policy or the settlement
Implementation and monitoring of the agreed terms
Employment and immigration, from hiring to exit
Every page we hold on employing people in Cyprus and on the permits that let them be here.
Written on this subject15
Generative AI at Work: Employer Duties
What an employer should have in place before staff use generative AI: an approved tool list, rules on what may be entered, and human oversight of decisions.
Annual Leave and Working Time in Cyprus
Twenty working days of leave on a five day week and twenty four on a six day week under Law 8/1967, and the forty eight hour average over four months under Law 63(I)/2002.
Cyprus Citizenship by Naturalisation
The statutory criteria for naturalisation as a Cypriot citizen, why they operate cumulatively, and which periods of lawful presence do not count.
Cyprus Digital Nomad Residence Route
What the Cyprus digital nomad residence permit allows a remote worker to do, what it prohibits, and the conditions that must hold for the whole of the permit.
When a Cyprus Business Changes Hands, the Staff Come With It
Transfers of undertakings under Law 104(I)/2000: contracts that move by law, the year on collective terms, and why a sale cannot justify dismissal.
Family leave and flexible working in Cyprus
Two weeks of paternity leave, eighteen weeks of parental leave a child, five days for a carer and seven for force majeure, and a flexible working request answered in a month.
Thirty months, and the fixed-term contract stops being fixed
Section 7 of Law 98(I)/2003 deems a fixed-term contract to be of indefinite duration once thirty months are behind it, unless the employer proves an objective reason.
Permanent Residence by Investment in Cyprus
What the Cyprus investor residence permit actually confers, the conditions that continue to apply after it is granted, and the risks in the property route.
Maternity Protection in Cyprus
Twenty two weeks of leave, protection from dismissal until five months after it ends, and the certificate that revokes a dismissal already given, under Law 100(I)/1997.
The employer has to prove it paid the minimum wage
Cap. 183 reverses the burden of proof, deems the worker employed for the whole time on the premises, and lets the criminal court order two years of back pay on conviction.
Telecommuting in Cyprus: Employer Obligations
What a Cyprus employer must agree, pay for and put in writing before an employee works remotely, and what the law forbids in monitoring staff at home.
Termination of Employment in Cyprus: Notice, Compensation and Redundancy
Dismissal under Cyprus Law 24/1967: the employer bears the burden, notice from one to eight weeks, compensation up to two years' wages, and the redundancy scale.
Six months of probation, and no ban on a second job
Cyprus Law 25(I)/2023 caps probation at six months, requires written terms within seven days, limits on-demand work, and stops a blanket ban on a second job.
Working in Cyprus as a Non-EU National
Entry, residence and the right to work are three permissions, not one. What Cap. 105 requires of a Cyprus employer before day one, and what an unlawful hire costs.
Harassment at work: what Law 42(I)/2025 asks of an employer
Since April 2025 harassment at work is a criminal offence, the burden of proof shifts, and an employer with no code of conduct is jointly liable.
Where this sits in the practice1
Whether a move makes you Cyprus tax resident, under the 183-day rule or the 60-day rule, and whether the non-dom exemption is available, is worked through on the tax residency and non-dom checker.
Related practice areas: Corporate & Commercial and Litigation & Arbitration.