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.
Most employees in Cyprus know that maternity leave exists and stop there. The Leave (Paternity, Parental, Carer's, Force Majeure) and Flexible Working Arrangements for Work-Life Balance Law of 2022, Law 216(I)/2022, adds four separate entitlements and a right to ask for flexible working, and attaches to each of them a protection against dismissal that most employers have not adjusted their handbook for.
The entitlements are set out in figures, which makes them unusually easy to check against what a contract or a staff handbook actually says.
Paternity leave: two weeks, and a window
Section 5(1) gives a working father two consecutive weeks of paternity leave. It applies where the child comes through a natural mother, through surrogacy, or by the adoption of a child up to twelve years old.
The leave has a window rather than a date. It runs from the week of the birth or the adoption and ends two weeks after the end of the maternity leave period as that is fixed by the Protection of Maternity Law. Where the mother dies before or during childbirth, or during maternity leave, the proviso to section 5(1) increases the father's entitlement by as many weeks as remained of the maternity leave she would have been entitled to.
Parental leave: eighteen weeks a child, and nine of them movable
Section 8(1) gives parental leave to an employee parent who has completed six months of continuous employment with the same employer, and provides that where there have been successive fixed term contracts, the total of those contracts with the same employer counts towards the six months.
Section 8(2) fixes the maximum at eighteen weeks for each child. Section 8(3) extends it in two situations: to twenty weeks for a parent of a child with a disability or a parent of a person with a disability, and to twenty three weeks for a widowed parent or a single parent, whether because parental responsibility has been removed from the other parent or because that parent has not recognised the child.
Section 8(4) is the provision couples get wrong. The right is individual and non transferable to each parent, with one exception: up to nine weeks of the remainder of one parent's leave may be transferred to the remainder of the other's. The right of transfer concerns the period of parental leave for which no parental leave allowance is provided under section 10.
Carer's leave and force majeure: five days and seven days, both unpaid
These two are separate, and the difference matters when a request is made.
Section 16 gives five working days a year of carer's leave, without pay, where the need for it is documented. It may be taken in one block or in parts, and an employee who intends to use it notifies the employer in good time, producing appropriate medical evidence.
Section 17 gives seven working days a year of absence, again without pay, for force majeure connected with urgent family reasons relating to illness or accident that make the employee's immediate care of a person necessary. It too may be taken at once or in parts, and here the employee notifies the employer as soon as the event that requires the absence happens.
The flexible working request, and the month
Section 19(1) gives the right to request flexible working arrangements for caring reasons to an employee who is the parent of a child up to fifteen years old, or a carer, and who has six months of continuous employment with the same employer, with successive fixed term contracts again counting towards it.
Section 19(2) puts a clock on the employer: it examines and deals with the request and informs the employee in writing of its decision within one month of the request.
Section 19(3) describes what the employer may do. Weighing its own needs and the employee's, it may approve the request and agree with the employee the period over which the arrangements apply, postpone their application, or refuse. Before postponing or refusing, it must take the employee's representations into account and inform them in writing of its decision, giving reasons.
Section 20 provides for the return to the original form of employment at the end of the agreed period.
The protection that comes with asking
Section 23(1) prohibits an employer from terminating the employment, from giving notice of termination, and from taking any other preliminary step in view of a possible dismissal, during a defined period. That period begins on the date of the employee's written notice of an intention to exercise any right under sections 5, 8, 16, 17 and 19, and ends on the date the exercise of the right ends. Section 23(2) then lists what is not caught, beginning with an employee guilty of serious misconduct or of conduct justifying termination.
Section 27(1) allows an employee who considers themselves aggrieved by a breach to bring a claim before the competent court even where the employment relationship has already ended. Section 27(2) shifts the burden: in any proceedings other than criminal, once the claimant establishes facts from which a breach may be presumed, it is for the other side to answer.
Section 33 makes an employer who contravenes any provision of the Law guilty of an offence, punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding 7,500 euro.
What this means in practice
For an employee. The written notice is what starts the protection in section 23, so an intention to take leave or to ask for flexible working is worth putting in writing rather than raising in a corridor. Keep the date.
For an employer. The one month in section 19(2) is a hard deadline for a written answer, and a refusal without reasons does not satisfy section 19(3). Handbooks written before 2022 tend to have neither the deadline nor the duty to give reasons, and both are enforceable with a fine.
For both. The figures are the easy part to check. The harder question is usually whether six months of continuous employment has been completed where the employment has run through a series of fixed term contracts, and section 8(1) and section 19(1) both answer it the same way: the contracts with the same employer are added together.
Questions we are asked
How much paternity leave is there?
Two consecutive weeks. Section 5(1) of Law 216(I)/2022 gives a working father who has a child through a natural mother, through surrogacy, or by adopting a child up to twelve years old, two consecutive weeks of paternity leave, to be taken within the period beginning in the week of the birth or the adoption and ending two weeks after the maternity leave period under the Protection of Maternity Law ends. Where the mother dies before or during childbirth, or during maternity leave, the entitlement increases by the number of weeks of maternity leave she would still have been entitled to.
How much parental leave, and can it be shared?
Eighteen weeks for each child, under section 8(2), once the parent has six months of continuous employment with the same employer. Successive fixed term contracts with the same employer count towards those six months. Section 8(3) extends it to twenty weeks for a parent of a child with a disability or of a person with a disability, and to twenty three weeks for a widowed parent or a single parent where parental responsibility has been removed from the other parent or the child has not been recognised by them. Section 8(4) makes the right individual and non transferable, with one exception: up to nine weeks of the remainder of one parent's leave may be transferred to the other, and only for the period that carries no parental leave allowance.
What is carer's leave, and what is force majeure absence?
Two different entitlements, both unpaid. Section 16 gives five working days a year of carer's leave where the need is documented, taken at once or in parts, with timely notice to the employer and appropriate medical evidence. Section 17 gives seven working days a year of absence for force majeure, meaning urgent family reasons connected with illness or accident that make the employee's immediate care of a person necessary, again at once or in parts, with notice to the employer as soon as the event occurs.
Can I ask to work flexibly, and does my employer have to answer?
Section 19(1) gives the right to request flexible working arrangements for caring reasons to an employee who is the parent of a child up to fifteen years old, or a carer, with six months of continuous employment with the same employer. Section 19(2) requires the employer to examine the request and inform the employee of its decision in writing within one month. Under section 19(3) the employer weighs its own needs and the employee's and may approve the request and agree the period, postpone it, or refuse, but before postponing or refusing it must consider the employee's representations and give its decision in writing with reasons.
Can I be dismissed for asking?
Section 23(1) prohibits an employer from terminating the employment, giving notice of termination, or taking any other preliminary step towards a possible dismissal, during the period that begins with the employee's written notice of an intention to exercise a right under sections 5, 8, 16, 17 or 19 and ends when the exercise of that right ends. Section 23(2) preserves termination for serious misconduct and the other cases it lists. Section 33 makes contravention of any provision of the Law an offence carrying a fine of up to 7,500 euro.
Sources
This article is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Klitos Platis
Advocate, Partner
Kleanthous & Platis LLC, Nicosia · Published 23 August 2026
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