A Cyprus employment contract does not have to be one signed document, but the essential terms of the job do have to be in writing. Under the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Law 25(I)/2023, the core terms are due before you start or within seven days of your first day, and the rest within one month. Probation is capped at six months, fixed-term contracts turn permanent once successive contracts reach 30 months without an objective reason, and a good part of what sits in the contract (leave, minimum wage, notice, the right to claim unfair dismissal) is set by statute and cannot be signed away.
What has to be in writing, and by when
Law 25(I)/2023 came into force on 13 April 2023, transposing EU Directive 2019/1152 and replacing the older law on informing employees. It splits the written particulars into two batches.
The first batch is due before the job starts or within seven days of it starting. It covers the identity of the parties, the place of work, the job title or a description of the work, the start date, the end date if the contract is fixed-term, the length and conditions of any probation, pay (with each component listed separately, plus how often and how it is paid), and the working pattern: normal hours, overtime arrangements and shifts.
The second batch has a month. That covers training entitlement, paid leave, the procedure and notice periods for ending the contract, any collective agreement that applies, and the social security bodies receiving your contributions.
Employees already in post when the law arrived get this information on request rather than automatically. Anyone taken on since then should have it without asking. Employers must also register the essential terms in ERGANI, the Ministry of Labour's system, which our guide to working in Cyprus covers along with permits and payroll deductions.
The law carries fines of up to €5,500. In practice the missing contract matters most later, when a dispute turns on what salary was agreed or whether a probation period was ever set, and the employer who put nothing on paper is the one short of evidence.
One exclusion is worth knowing: workers whose predetermined working time averages three hours a week or less over a four-week reference period fall outside the law.
Probation: six months, and not a day more
Before 2023 a Cyprus employer could agree a probationary period of up to 104 weeks. Law 25(I)/2023 cut that to a maximum of six months, and it applies whatever an older contract, regulation or collective agreement said. Company directors are the main exception.
A fixed-term contract's probation has to be proportionate to the contract's length and the nature of the work, so a four-month contract with a four-month probation will not survive scrutiny. When a fixed-term contract is renewed for the same role, no fresh probation applies. The employer can extend probation to account for time the employee was absent during it.
Probation matters because of how it meshes with the Termination of Employment Law 24/1967. While you are on probation, either side can end the job without notice. Protection against unfair dismissal starts once you have 26 weeks of continuous service, which now lines up with the six-month ceiling. Dismissal during probation can still be unlawful if the real reason was discrimination, pregnancy or retaliation for asserting a right, since those protections do not wait for 26 weeks.
Fixed-term contracts and the 30-month rule
The Fixed-Term Employees Law 98(I)/2003 does two things. It stops employers paying fixed-term staff less, or giving them worse conditions, than a comparable permanent colleague without an objective justification. And it limits how long the arrangement can run.
Once an employee has worked for the same employer on fixed-term contracts totalling 30 months or more, the contract is treated for all purposes as one of indefinite duration. Any clause fixing an end date stops applying, unless the employer can prove that continued fixed-term employment is objectively justified. The recognised justifications are the ones you would expect: covering another employee's absence, genuinely temporary work, or a sector where defined-term work is the norm for good reason.
The law does not cap the number of renewals, only the total. Rolling someone over on eleven-month contracts for three years without a real reason is the pattern the rule was written to stop.
Part-time staff have a parallel regime. The Part-Time Employees (Prohibition of Less Favourable Treatment) Law 76(I)/2002 bars less favourable treatment on the ground of working part-time, with pay, leave and benefits applied pro rata.
Terms you cannot waive
A contract can improve on the statutory minimums. It cannot go below them, and a clause that tries to is unenforceable however clearly the employee signed it. The ones that most often turn up in badly drafted contracts:
- Paid leave. The Annual Holidays with Pay Law gives 20 working days on a five-day week and 24 on a six-day week. The Labour Disputes Court treats leave as a right that cannot be traded for cash during employment. Untaken leave is paid out only when the job ends.
- The minimum wage. Since 1 January 2026 it has been €979 gross a month on hiring and €1,088 after six months with the same employer, with some sectors outside the decree. The minimum wage guide sets out who is covered.
- Notice and dismissal rights. Statutory notice under Law 24/1967 rises from one week to eight weeks with service, and the right to claim unfair dismissal after 26 weeks cannot be contracted out of. The notice scale and the redundancy payment tables are in our redundancy guide.
- Working time. The 48-hour average weekly limit and the 11-hour daily rest period under the Organisation of Working Time Law 63(I)/2002 apply regardless of what the contract says about hours.
Social insurance and GeSY contributions come off every payslip whatever the contract says. The income tax calculator will show what a gross salary is worth after deductions.
Second jobs, flexible hours and training
Law 25(I)/2023 added rights that older Cyprus contracts often ignore. An employer cannot forbid you from working for someone else outside your agreed schedule, or treat you worse for doing so. It can restrict a second job only on objective grounds, such as health and safety, protecting business confidentiality or avoiding a conflict of interest, and the restriction has to be proportionate. A blanket "no other employment" clause is now hard to defend.
Where the working pattern is wholly or mostly unpredictable, the employer has to state the reference hours and days within which work can be assigned, the guaranteed paid hours and the minimum advance notice. Work offered outside those limits can be refused without consequence.
Training the employer is obliged to provide must be free, count as working time and, where possible, happen during working hours. Clauses that make staff pay for mandatory training, or claw its cost back, conflict with that.
After six months' service and the end of probation, an employee can ask in writing for a more predictable and secure form of work, such as a permanent contract or fixed hours. The employer has to give a reasoned written reply within one month.
Non-compete clauses rarely hold
Many contracts drafted abroad carry a post-employment non-compete. In Cyprus they sit awkwardly with section 27 of the Contract Law, Cap. 149, which makes void any agreement restraining someone from exercising a lawful profession, trade or business. The statutory exceptions deal with commercial situations such as the sale of a business's goodwill, not employment. Cyprus courts have generally treated post-termination non-competes in employment contracts as unenforceable, even when limited in time and area.
Confidentiality obligations are different. Protecting trade secrets and client information is legitimate, and a well-drafted confidentiality clause, together with the general law on misuse of confidential information, gives an employer considerably more than a non-compete will. Non-solicitation clauses are less settled and turn on their wording, which is a question for an employment lawyer rather than a template.
Drafting a contract, or reading one before you sign? Browse employment lawyers in our directory to check the probation, fixed-term and restrictive clauses against Cyprus law. Rules and figures here reflect the position in September 2026; confirm the current position with a qualified Cyprus advocate before relying on them.