The Council of Ministers on Wednesday approved the bill to regulate the possibility of teleworking in the Cypriot public service, and specifically mixed teleworking, that is, the possibility of teleworking on certain days during the year, combined with working at the employee's place of work.
It also approved the Public Service (Working Time) Regulations to regulate the possibility of reduced employment and the expansion of flexible working hours in the Public Service.
With this Decision of the Council of Ministers, according to an official announcement, its previous Decision is implemented to regulate flexible forms of employment in the public service, which is a reform policy included in the Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021-2026 (Reform 2), under axis 3.4 for the modernization of the public service.
It is added that the date of commencement of implementation of both teleworking and other flexible forms of employment will be determined at a later stage, depending on when the two pieces of legislation are voted/approved by the House of Representatives.
In relation to the proposed Bill on teleworking, it is stated that it includes the conditions and general terms for the implementation of teleworking and it is noted that "a basic condition for the possibility of teleworking is that the duties of employees and employees or part of them can be performed remotely, based on their nature and the technological means required for their execution, as determined by the relevant Head of Department".
According to the announcement, details on the teleworking implementation process have been included in a Manual with guidelines prepared by the Department of Public Administration and Personnel, in collaboration with the Department of Information Technology Services and other involved Services to guide the Services, employees and employers in implementing teleworking, which will be released after the Bill is passed into Law by the House of Representatives.
It is reported that the Public Service (Working Time) Regulations of 2025 promote the regulation of the implementation of reduced employment of up to 2 hours maximum per working day, with a proportional reduction in remuneration, for those employees covered by the Leave (Paternity, Parental, Care, Force Majeure) and Flexible Work Arrangements for Work-Life Balance Law, i.e. employees who are parents of children up to 15 years of age and caregivers, i.e. employees who provide personal care or support to a relative or person residing in the same household as the employee, who is in need of significant care or support for a serious medical reason, as well as employees with a disability or who present serious health problems, upon presentation of a medical certificate, which will document that they are unable to work full-time.
It is also reported that the expansion of flexible working hours from one and a half (1½) hours which is currently to two (2) hours and the formation of the hours to 7:00 a.m./9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m./4:30 p.m., with a summary of special arrangements for employees of the House of Representatives, where afternoon work also applies.
It is noted that, in order to promote the implementation of the two aforementioned forms of employment, it was deemed appropriate to consolidate and modernize the existing Public Service (Working Time) Regulations of 1990 to 2023. Therefore, the approval of new Regulations is being promoted, which will repeal the current Regulations.
According to the official announcement, for the implementation of these flexible forms of employment promoted by these Regulations, it is mandatory for Services that have not already done so to install appropriate electronic systems for the purposes of controlling the time of arrival and departure of employees, which are also necessary for the electronic submission of an application for teleworking.
