The Law on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions (25(I)/2023), (hereinafter referred to as "the Law"), came into force on 13/04/2023, incorporating the European Union (EU) Directive 2019/1152 into the Cypriot legislation. The Law as it will be explained below provides a number of new employees' rights.
The new employees' rights provided by the Law are the following:
1.The maximum duration of the probationary period is set at 6 months.
2.The employee has a right to parallel employment, i.e. to be employed by other employers outside the working hours agreed with his main employer, while the latter is prohibited from discriminating against such employee because of the exercise of this right. An employer who wishes to exclude from his employees the right of parallel employment should, at the time of recruitment, make a provision in the written employment agreement or inform the employee of this particular prohibition in writing, specifying also the "objective" grounds why this right of parallel employment would not be granted. Valid reasons include inter alia, the preservation of business secrets or the avoidance of conflicts of interest. It is worth noting that, if an employee, to the knowledge of his main employer, outside his working hours, is employed by another employer, and the main employer has accepted this situation then, if at some future time the main employer demands from such employee to discontinue his employment with the other employer this would potentially amount to a breach of the Law and allow the employee to bring a claim against his main employer for breach of his statutory right for parallel employment.
3.Right to a minimum predictable employment/labour. If the employee's work schedule is either wholly or mostly unpredictable, then the employee would have an obligation to perform the work assigned to him by his employer, only in cases where the employer has notified the employee of such an assignment and provided him with reasonable notice.
4.Right to move to a more predictable form of work. In cases where the nature of the work allows for more predictable and safer working conditions, the employee has the right to request to be assigned to more predictable working conditions, for example, a predetermined work schedule and if the employer does not accept the employee's request, to explain in writing the reasons for rejecting such request.
5.Right to free training. In cases where the employee needs to be trained in order to perform his duties, then the training shall be offered free of charge and shall be considered as actual working hours of the employee duly spent during his/her employment.
6.The right to be informed about the basic terms and conditions of employment. The employee has a right to be informed in writing about the basic terms and conditions of the employment at the beginning of his/her employment. Those who wish to explore this right further may be referred to our article:
«Do Employers have a duty to provide written information on basic terms and conditions of employment?».
What is the definition of the term «employee» as per the Law?
In the preamble of the Law, it is explained that an "employee" is defined as any person who is employed by another legal or physical person under an employment relationship or contract or apprenticeship contract. Regarding the criteria to be taken into account, the Law itself refers to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Some of these criteria include: the degree of control of the employer to the work offered by the employee and the establishment of a dependent employment relationship for which the employee receives remuneration. In the event of an employment dispute before the Cyprus Employment Dispute Tribunal, in relation to the application of the Law, a Cypriot Judge, will need to refer to the relevant case law of the CJEU in case that a precedent is needed and/or an interpretation is required in relation with any of the definitions and/or provisions of the Law. We note that in many employment disputes, in which there is a challenge as to whether or not the facts justify the existence of an employment relationship, the CJEU tends to decide that there is a rebuttable presumption that an employment relationship exists for the benefit of the employee. This rebuttable presumption of course, does not include those who are self-employed.
Which categories of employees are not affected by the new employment rights?
- Self-employed individuals,
- Public servants (with the exception of the right to be informed about the basic terms and conditions of their employment, as set out in paragraph 6 above, to which public servants are also entitled),
- Seafarers and sea fishermen and,
- Part-time employees with a predetermined total working time not exceeding 3 hours per week on average over a reference period of 4 consecutive weeks.
Which categories of employees are affected by the new employment rights?
The Law applies to all employees who are employed in the Republic of Cyprus, including parttime employees, whose duration of employment is unpredictable and have no guaranteed working time, before the commencement of their employment.
The Law contains provisions on employment contracts on demand.
The new, non – standard forms of employment contracts, which are encountered in the labour market, include the following:
- Zero-hour contracts or employment contracts on demand. These are contracts in which the employee is only required to work when the employer needs him/her and he/she is paid only for the hours worked
- Voucher-based work;
- The various forms of teleworking and mobile working using applications and new technologies
- mini jobs;
- Short-term contracts;
- Work at platforms;
The Legislator's aim is to focus on limiting the form and duration of the above non - standard contracts in order to prevent employers abusively tending to classify part-time employment as an "on-demand employment relationship" when in fact the employment relationship is indeed part-time but has a guaranteed duration. Specifically, the employment relationship is classified as on-demand contract or a similar non - standard form of employment, only when (a) the total duration with the same employer does not exceed eight weeks per calendar year with a maximum continuous duration, per case, of three weeks; or (b) the total duration of continuous employment of the employee does not exceed five hours per week. If the employment relationship does not fall under (a) or (b), it is not considered an "on-demand contract" according with the Law.
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