An employee with twenty six weeks of continuous service who is dismissed for a reason the Termination of Employment Law 24/1967 does not recognise is entitled to compensation, and it is the employer who must prove the reason was a lawful one. Notice runs from one week to eight weeks with length of service. Redundancy is a defined term with its own payment from a public fund, not a word an employer can simply choose.
Most dismissals in Cyprus are discussed in the language of fairness. The Law itself is more exact than that. The Termination of Employment Law 24/1967 sets out a short list of reasons for which an employer may dismiss without paying compensation, a fixed table of notice periods, a defined meaning of redundancy with a payment scale attached, and a specialist court. Almost every dispute between an employer and a dismissed employee is decided somewhere inside those four structures, so it is worth knowing where each line actually sits.
This guide is written for both sides of the same conversation: the employee who has been handed a letter, and the employer who is about to write one. The section numbers are those of the Law.
The right: twenty six weeks, then protection
Under section 3(1), where an employer terminates the employment of an employee who has been continuously employed for at least twenty six weeks, for any reason other than the reasons section 5 sets out, the employee is entitled to compensation. The qualifying period can be extended by agreement, but only within a stated limit and only at the start: a written contract made at the time of hiring may stretch it to at most one hundred and four weeks. An extension agreed later, or a longer one, does not satisfy the proviso.
The measure of compensation is in the First Schedule, and its two fixed points are worth more than any general description. The award is never less than the redundancy payment the employee would have received had they been declared redundant, and never more than two years' wages. Between those limits the Industrial Disputes Court has a wide discretion, and the Schedule tells it what to weigh: the wages and other emoluments, the length of service, the loss of career prospects, the actual circumstances of the termination, and the employee's age.
Two further rules sit in section 3 and are less well known. Where the employer has more than nineteen employees and the dismissal is found manifestly unlawful, or unlawful and in bad faith, the court may order re-employment, with compensation for the actual loss up to twelve months' wages, where the employee has asked for that remedy and the circumstances justify it. And the compensation itself is split at source: the employer pays it up to one year's wages, and the excess comes from the redundancy fund.
The five reasons that defeat compensation
Section 5 is the employer's list, and it is short: failure to perform the work in a reasonably satisfactory manner, with temporary incapacity from illness, injury or childbirth expressly excluded from that phrase; redundancy in the defined sense below; force majeure, war, civil insurrection, act of God or destruction of the premises by a fire not due to the employer's deliberate act or negligence; the expiry of a fixed-term contract or the reaching of normal retiring age; and conduct by the employee that would justify dismissal without notice.
Each limb carries its own qualification, and the qualifications decide cases. A succession of fixed-term contracts can be treated as a single contract of indefinite duration, so renewal after renewal does not manufacture a clean expiry. And the right to dismiss for conduct is lost if not exercised within a reasonable time: an employer who tolerates behaviour for months and then reaches for it as a ground has a problem the letter cannot fix.
The burden is the part most people on both sides misjudge. Under section 6(1), the termination is presumed not to have been for a section 5 reason until the contrary is proved. The employer proves the reason, not the employee the absence of one.
Section 6(2) then closes the door on a set of reasons that are never valid at all: trade union membership or activity, service on a safety committee, seeking or holding office as an employees' representative, the good-faith filing of a complaint or participation in proceedings against the employer, race, colour, sex, marital status, religion, political opinions, national or social origin, pregnancy or maternity, and the taking of parental, paternity, carers' or force-majeure leave.
Resignation forced by the employer counts as dismissal
Under section 7, where an employee lawfully terminates the employment because of the employer's conduct, the termination is treated as a termination by the employer, with the full section 3 consequences. The presumption here runs the other way: the employee is presumed not to have terminated lawfully until the contrary is proved, so the employee who walks out carries the burden of showing the conduct justified it.
That allocation of burdens has a practical moral on each side. An employee who is being squeezed towards the door should take advice before resigning, while the evidence of the conduct is still being generated. An employer who believes a resignation was voluntary should say so in writing at the time, not for the first time in court.
Notice: one week to eight
Section 9 fixes the employer's minimum notice by length of continuous employment: one week from twenty six weeks of service, two weeks from fifty two, four weeks from one hundred and four, five from one hundred and fifty six, six from two hundred and eight, seven from two hundred and sixty, and eight weeks from three hundred and twelve weeks, which is six years. The employee's own notice under section 10 is shorter: one week, two weeks from a year's service, three weeks from five years'.
Probation has its own rule, with two limits that are routinely missed. No notice is required during or at the end of a probation period. But no probation may exceed one hundred and four weeks, and a probation longer than twenty six weeks counts only if it was agreed in writing at the start of the employment. A long probation asserted for the first time in the dismissal letter is not one.
Three satellite rules complete the picture. Under section 11 the employer may require the employee to accept payment in lieu of notice, in which case the employee is treated as employed until the notice would have expired; and an employee under notice who finds a new job may leave at once, losing only the pay for the unserved remainder. Under section 12 an employee under notice is entitled, by agreement, to up to eight hours a week away from work without loss of pay to look for new employment, capped at forty hours in all. And section 15 preserves both parties' right to terminate without any notice for the other's conduct, which is the provision summary dismissal stands on.
Redundancy is a defined term with a public payment
Redundancy under this Law is not a soft word for dismissal. Section 18 defines it: the employer has ceased, or intends to cease, carrying on the business; has ceased or intends to cease carrying it on in the place where the employee worked; or the termination is due to listed operational causes, among them modernisation and mechanisation, changes in products, methods or required skills, the abolition of departments, marketing or credit difficulties, lack of orders or raw materials, and contraction of the volume of work. On a change of workplace, the court may hold there is no redundancy where it would be reasonable to expect the employee to continue at the new place.
The payment, for an employee with at least one hundred and four weeks of continuous service, comes from the redundancy fund rather than from the employer, and the Fourth Schedule fixes the scale: two weeks' wages for each year of the first four years of service, two and a half for years five to ten, three for years eleven to fifteen, three and a half for sixteen to twenty, and four for twenty one to twenty five, a remainder of twenty six weeks or more counting as a full year. The wage is that of the last week of employment. Under section 20A the payment cannot be assigned or attached.
The employer's side of a genuine redundancy carries its own obligations: notification of the projected redundancy to the Minister at least one month in advance under section 21, with the numbers, the branches affected, the occupations and the reasons; and under section 22, an employer who wants to rebuild the same type of workforce within eight months must give hiring priority to those made redundant, subject to the operational needs of the business.
The boundary between the two regimes is where most disputes live. A dismissal dressed as redundancy while someone new is hired into the same duties invites the section 6 presumption to do its work, before the specialist court the Law names in section 30, the Industrial Disputes Court.
What to send us
From an employee: the contract, the dismissal letter or the account of how the employment ended if there was no letter, the last payslips, and the dates, especially the start date, because almost everything above is counted in weeks of service. From an employer: the same, plus whatever record exists of the reason, made at the time rather than reconstructed. In both cases, soon: the assessment is short, and the positions harden quickly.
Questions we are asked
How much notice am I entitled to in Cyprus?
Under section 9 of Law 24/1967, from one week after twenty six weeks of continuous employment, rising in steps to eight weeks after three hundred and twelve weeks, which is six years. The employer may pay in lieu under section 11. Your own notice to the employer, under section 10, tops out at three weeks.
I was dismissed without any reason being given. Is that lawful?
The Law approaches it from the other end: under section 6(1) the termination is presumed not to have been for one of the lawful reasons in section 5 until the employer proves the contrary. An employer who gave no reason at the time starts that exercise badly. Tell us your start date, how the employment ended, and what, if anything, was said.
What is the most the court can award for unlawful dismissal?
The First Schedule sets the frame: never less than the redundancy payment the employee would have received, and never more than two years' wages. Within it the Industrial Disputes Court weighs the wages and other benefits, the length of service, the lost career prospects, the circumstances of the dismissal and the employee's age. For employers with more than nineteen staff, a manifestly unlawful or bad-faith dismissal can also ground an order for re-employment.
My employer says I am redundant but is hiring for my job. What can I do?
Redundancy is defined in section 18, and a termination that does not fit the definition is not redundancy whatever the letter calls it. Two provisions do the work: the section 6 presumption puts the burden on the employer to prove the reason, and section 22 obliges an employer who rebuilds the same workforce within eight months to give priority to those it made redundant. Keep the advertisement or the announcement: it is evidence.
I resigned because the situation became impossible. Do I have any rights?
Possibly, under section 7: an employee who lawfully terminates because of the employer's conduct is treated as dismissed by the employer. The burden of showing the conduct justified leaving rests on you, which is why the time to take advice is before resigning, while the evidence still exists and can be kept.
How is the redundancy payment calculated?
From the fund, on the Fourth Schedule scale: two weeks' wages per year of service for the first four years, rising by half a week per band to four weeks per year for years twenty one to twenty five, with a remainder of twenty six weeks or more counting as a year. The wage used is the last week's. The payment cannot be assigned or attached.
Was I even entitled to notice during probation?
During a valid probation, no: either side may decide the employment should not continue without notice. But the probation itself has limits: it cannot exceed one hundred and four weeks, and anything beyond twenty six weeks counts only if agreed in writing at the start of the employment. A long probation produced for the first time at dismissal fails that test.
Related reading
This work sits within our immigration and employment practice. What happens to staff when the business itself changes hands is in employees when a Cyprus business is sold, the employer's safety duties are in construction and workplace accidents, and the remote work rules are in the remote work legislation explained.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws and their application can change, and individual circumstances differ. For advice on your own matter, contact Klitos Platis at klitos@kleanthousplatis.com or telephone +357 22 680 330.
Klitos Platis
Advocate, Partner
Kleanthous & Platis LLC, Nicosia · Published 22 August 2026
Need advice on your own matter?
Send us the documents and a short description at office@kleanthousplatis.com and we will reply within one business day.
Or use the enquiry form, message us on WhatsApp, or call +357 22 680 330.
When Cyprus law changes, hear it from us
One short email when something changes that matters: new legislation, a decision worth knowing, a deadline. Written by the partners, no marketing, unsubscribe with one click.
Your address is used for these updates and nothing else.