Every employee in Cyprus is entitled to at least four weeks of paid annual leave a year: 20 working days if you work a five-day week, 24 if you work six. The right comes from the Annual Holidays with Pay Law of 1967 (Law 8/1967) and the Organisation of Working Time Law 63(I)/2002, and it applies to full-timers, part-timers and foreign workers alike. Your contract can give you more. It cannot give you less, and you cannot sign the minimum away.
What surprises most newcomers is who actually pays for the leave. In many Cypriot workplaces it is not the employer but a state fund, and that changes how and when the money reaches you.
How much leave you get
The full statutory entitlement depends on having worked at least 48 weeks in the leave year. Below that, the rules scale down:
- Fewer than 13 weeks worked in the year: no statutory paid leave for that year.
- Between 13 and 48 weeks: leave in proportion to the weeks worked.
- 48 weeks or more: the full 20 or 24 working days.
The days are working days, so a fortnight off on a five-day week uses 10 of your 20. Section 6 of the law lists periods that do not count as annual leave, including public holidays that qualify under your terms, time off through sickness or accident, and certain family-related leave. If you fall ill during a booked holiday, those days are sick days rather than holiday days, provided you report it properly and can back it up with a medical certificate.
Part-timers get the same four weeks, measured against their own working pattern. Someone who works three days a week gets four weeks of three-day weeks, which is 12 days, rather than a slice of a full-timer's hours.
Many employers in finance, tech and the larger Limassol firms give 21 to 25 days as standard. There is a practical reason for that, which comes up below.
Public holidays are a separate question
Cyprus has around 15 public holidays a year, including Green Monday, Greek Independence Day on 25 March, Orthodox Easter and Cyprus Independence Day on 1 October. People often assume they get all of them off on top of their 20 days. Legally, the position is narrower.
Outside retail, hotels and catering (which have their own sector rules) there is no general statutory obligation on a private-sector employer to give public holidays off with pay. Whether you get them, and how many, depends on your contract or the collective agreement for your industry. In practice most employers give most of them, and many contracts list them by name. Check yours. Shop employees are a clear exception: the legislation governing shop opening hours and conditions gives them a set number of paid public holidays.
If a public holiday you are entitled to falls inside your annual leave, it should not be deducted from your 20 days.
The Central Holiday Fund, and why your employer may not pay you
This is the part that confuses people moving from the UK. Under Law 8/1967, the default position is that employers pay contributions into the Central Holiday Fund, run by the Social Insurance Services at the Ministry of Labour. The rate for the standard four weeks (20 days on a five-day week, 24 on a six-day week) is 8% of the employee's insurable earnings, paid entirely by the employer and capped at the same ceiling used for Social Insurance contributions.
You then claim your holiday pay from the Fund, not from the payroll. The Ministry's rules for a payment are:
- 1Your employer must have paid contributions for you during the previous year.
- 2You must have worked at least 13 weeks in that previous year.
- 3You must take at least nine consecutive days of leave, or four consecutive days if you worked fewer than 48 weeks.
The amount paid out equals the contributions your employer or employers paid for you in the previous year. In other words, you are paid this year for leave earned last year, which feels odd until you get used to it. Applications go to the Social Insurance Services with an employer-stamped form and a bank IBAN certificate. Older accounts suggest payments lag well behind the leave itself, so do not plan your summer cash flow around a quick turnaround.
Employers can opt out. If they give leave on terms more favourable than the law (in practice at least 21 days on a five-day week, or 25 on a six-day week) and pay employees their normal salary while on leave, they can apply on form Y.K.A. 1-005 for exemption from Fund contributions. That is why so many larger firms offer 21 days: it lets them run holiday pay through payroll like a UK employer and avoid the paperwork.
Your payslip usually tells you which system you are in. If there is a Central Holiday Fund line in the employer's Social Insurance contributions and no holiday pay from your employer, you claim from the Fund.
When you can take it, and carrying it over
The law expects leave to be taken in the year it relates to, and Fund payments are built around blocks of at least nine consecutive days. Timing is normally agreed between you and your employer, and businesses with seasonal peaks (hotels in August, accountants around tax deadlines) commonly set blackout periods in the contract or staff handbook. A reasonable request refused year after year is worth raising formally in writing.
Carry-over is more limited than in many UK contracts. The Department of Labour Relations' guidance is that leave can be accumulated for up to two years, by agreement between employer and employee. Where leave is accumulated under the Fund system, the Fund pays both years' entitlement together. Beyond that two-year window, there is no general right to bank leave indefinitely, so a contract clause promising to "roll over" unused days for five years is generous rather than standard.
Can your employer pay you instead of letting you take leave?
No, not while you are still employed. The Department of Labour Relations treats annual leave as a right that can be replaced by money only when the employment ends. A deal where you "sell back" a week of leave each December, however friendly, is not something the law recognises, and the Labour Disputes Court has treated leave as a right employees cannot trade away during employment.
What happens to untaken leave when you leave
On termination, accrued leave you have not taken must be paid out at your normal rate, whatever the reason the job ended. That applies whether you resign, are made redundant or are dismissed.
Two related points come up in disputes:
- The Department of Labour Relations' guidance is that annual leave cannot overlap with the employer's notice period. An employer cannot hand you notice and simply tell you the last three weeks are your holiday.
- If you are under the Fund system, leave earned in your final year is reflected in contributions already paid, so part of what you are owed may come from the Fund rather than the employer.
Notice periods themselves are set by the Termination of Employment Law and depend on length of service. Our guide to unfair dismissal in Cyprus covers them alongside compensation, and the employment contract rules piece explains what your written terms must say about leave.
How leave interacts with other time off
Maternity, paternity and parental leave are separate entitlements with their own allowances from the Social Insurance Fund, and they do not eat into your 20 days; our maternity leave guide sets out the weeks and pay. Sick leave is also separate. For most private-sector employees there is no statutory sick pay from the employer, and sickness allowance comes from Social Insurance after the waiting days, so check what your contract says before you assume full pay.
If you are moving to the island for work, our overview of working in Cyprus covers hours, the 48-hour average week and minimum wage, and the income tax calculator shows what a salary is worth after tax and contributions.
If your employer won't give you your leave
Start by putting it in writing: the dates requested, the refusal, and the days you calculate you are owed. If that gets nowhere, the Department of Labour Relations at the Ministry of Labour handles complaints and can inspect. Money claims for unpaid holiday pay on termination go to the Labour Disputes Court, usually alongside any claim about the dismissal itself. Keep payslips, your contract and any emails approving or refusing leave; disputes over holiday usually come down to records.
Owed holiday pay or being refused leave? Browse employment lawyers in our directory, including advocates in Limassol and Nicosia who handle Labour Disputes Court claims. The figures here reflect the rules in force in October 2026; confirm the current position with a qualified Cyprus lawyer before you act.