Harassment at work is a criminal offence in Cyprus, and has been since the Prevention and Combating of Violence and Harassment in the Workplace Law of 2025 (Law 42(I)/2025) was published on 11 April 2025. A person convicted faces up to three years in prison, a fine of up to €10,000, or both. Your employer also has legal duties to prevent it, and if it ignored them it can be held jointly liable for what a colleague did to you.
Which law applies depends on what kind of harassment it is, and that decides where you complain.
Three laws, depending on the harassment
Cyprus now has three overlapping statutes, and Law 42(I)/2025 deliberately steps aside where an older one already covers the conduct (section 4).
- Sexual harassment and harassment linked to sex fall under the Equal Treatment of Men and Women in Employment and Vocational Training Law, 205(I)/2002. It prohibits sexual harassment by an employer, a supervisor or a colleague, and allows both civil and criminal proceedings.
- Harassment linked to race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age or sexual orientation falls under the Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation Law, 58(I)/2004.
- Everything else, which in practice means bullying, intimidation, humiliation and workplace violence with no discrimination angle, falls under Law 42(I)/2025.
Before 2025 the third category was the gap. A manager who belittled everyone equally broke no specific statute; a claim had to be built from health and safety duties or constructive dismissal. That is no longer the case.
What counts as harassment under the 2025 law
The definition in section 2 is unwanted conduct at work, from the recipient's point of view, that has the purpose or effect of violating a person's dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. A single incident can qualify for violence; the law does not require a pattern.
The criminal test in section 10 adds a knowledge element. The harasser must know, or ought to know, that the conduct causes harassment, and "ought to know" means a reasonable person in the same circumstances would have seen it. Saying "I was only joking" does not get far if a reasonable colleague would have recognised the effect.
"Workplace" is wide. It covers the premises, the places where you take breaks, eat or change, and the spaces around the workplace. Professional advisers summarising the law read it as extending to work travel, training, work social events and work-related messages, which matches the ILO Violence and Harassment Convention (No. 190) that Cyprus ratified in March 2025.
The law protects employees, trainees and job applicants. It also reaches third parties: a client, contractor or member of the public who harasses staff is covered, and so is an employee who harasses them.
What your employer must do
Section 6 puts a list of concrete duties on every employer, from a two-person business to the civil service:
- 1Adopt a policy against violence and harassment, in consultation with employees and their representatives.
- 2Draw up a code of conduct that defines prohibited behaviour, explains how to complain and to whom, and sets out how complaints are handled. Staff must be trained on it.
- 3Appoint one or more trained employees to apply the code and to receive and investigate complaints.
- 4Investigate every complaint impartially and confidentially, with a mechanism that is "safe, fair and effective".
- 5Act as soon as it learns of an incident: stop it, prevent a repeat, and deal with the effects on the victim. The law gives examples such as changing someone's position, hours, location or way of working.
- 6Include violence and harassment in the written risk assessment required under the Safety and Health at Work Law.
The code of conduct carries real weight. An employer that has one and enforces it in practice is treated as having taken the required preventive steps. An employer without one is jointly and severally liable with the harasser for the harassment. If your employer never produced a code, that is the first thing an advocate will ask about.
The law also requires employers, as far as reasonably practicable, to support employees affected by domestic violence through leave, flexible working and temporary protection against dismissal.
Protection from retaliation
Section 7 makes a dismissal, or any adverse change to your terms, absolutely void if it follows a complaint or your rejection of harassment. The burden then sits with the employer, which must prove the decision had nothing to do with the complaint. The same protection covers anyone who helped you, including colleagues who gave evidence.
Retaliating, or obstructing someone from complaining, is a separate offence carrying up to two years in prison or a €5,000 fine (section 11). Knowingly making a false complaint is also an offence, with the same maximum as harassment itself: three years or €10,000.
Penalties at a glance
| Offence under Law 42(I)/2025 | Maximum penalty |
|---|---|
| Harassment or violence at work (ss. 9–10) | 3 years' prison and/or €10,000 |
| Obstructing a complaint or retaliating (s. 11) | 2 years' prison and/or €5,000 |
| Offence by a company, through its directors or managers or poor supervision (s. 12) | €20,000 fine, plus civil liability |
| Knowingly false complaint (s. 23) | 3 years' prison and/or €10,000 |
A company's criminal liability does not shield the individuals involved. Both can be prosecuted.
How to complain
Start internally if you can. Put the complaint in writing to the person your employer has appointed under the code, keep copies, and note dates, witnesses and any messages. An internal complaint also sets up the retaliation protection.
Outside the company you have three routes, and you can use more than one:
- Ministry of Labour inspectors. Section 13 lets you complain to the Chief Inspector and inspectors appointed under the law, even after you have left the job. They can enter premises, demand documents and question people. They also try to settle the dispute: if it settles, both sides sign a written record; if it doesn't, the inspector's report goes to both parties and can be used in court. While the complaint is with the inspectors, court time limits and limitation periods stop running.
- The police, for the criminal offences.
- The Ombudsman (Commissioner for Administration and Protection of Human Rights), where the complaint falls within its remit. The Ombudsman is also Cyprus's equality body, so it is also a route for harassment covered by 205(I)/2002 or 58(I)/2004.
Claiming compensation
Civil claims go to the Labour Disputes Court, which has jurisdiction over disputes under the 2025 law (section 24). Once you show facts from which a breach can be presumed, the burden shifts to the employer or harasser to prove there was none (section 21). For a claimant with little documentation, that matters a great deal.
The court must award fair and reasonable compensation covering at least your full financial loss, including lost pay, plus damages for any moral or physical harm, with legal interest from the date of the breach. If you were dismissed in breach of the law and you ask for it, the court orders reinstatement, without needing to examine whether the employer acted in good or bad faith. That is a stronger remedy than ordinary unfair dismissal, where reinstatement is rare.
Section 21 also says these rights cannot be waived in advance by a contract term, policy or pre-dispute arbitration clause.
The usual limit for applications to the Labour Disputes Court is 12 months, covered in our guide to how the Labour Disputes Court works. If harassment pushed you out of the job, read our article on unfair dismissal in Cyprus as well, since the two claims often run together. Our piece on employment contract rules covers what your contract can and cannot say.
Facing harassment at work, or need a compliant code of conduct? Browse employment lawyers in our directory, or contact advocates in Nicosia and Limassol. Confirm your position and the time limits with a qualified Cyprus lawyer before you act.