On Wednesday, the Council of Ministers approved a bill regulating the possibility of teleworking within the Cypriot public sector, specifically hybrid teleworking — meaning employees will be able to work remotely on certain days of the year, combined with working on-site at their usual workplace.

The Council also approved the Public Service (Working Time) Regulations to regulate reduced working hours and to extend flexible working hours within the public sector.

According to an official announcement, this Council of Ministers decision implements a previous commitment to regulate flexible forms of employment in the public sector. This forms part of a broader reform policy included in the Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021–2026 (Reform 2), under Priority Axis 3.4, which focuses on modernizing the public administration.

The start date for implementing both teleworking and other flexible work options will be set at a later stage, depending on when the two legislative texts are passed by the House of Representatives.

The proposed bill specifies the conditions and general terms for applying telework. A fundamental prerequisite is that employees’ tasks — or parts of them — can realistically be carried out remotely, depending on their nature and the required technological means, as assessed by the relevant Department Head.

According to the announcement, details for implementing teleworking have been included in a handbook with guidelines prepared by the Department of Public Administration and Personnel, in collaboration with the Department of Information Technology Services and other relevant services. This handbook will be distributed after the bill is enacted into law.

The 2025 Public Service (Working Time) Regulations also promote the option of reduced working hours by up to two hours per working day, with a corresponding reduction in pay, for employees covered under the Law on Parental Leave, Carers, and Flexible Working Arrangements for Work-Life Balance. This includes employees who are parents of children up to 15 years old, caregivers providing personal care or support to a relative or a person living in the same household with significant care or support needs due to a serious medical condition, as well as employees with disabilities or serious health problems, subject to medical certification proving they cannot work full time.

In addition, the flexible working hours window will be extended from 1.5 hours currently to 2 hours, with working hours adjusted to 7:00 a.m./9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m./4:30 p.m., with special arrangements applying to House of Representatives staff, who also work afternoon shifts.

As part of implementing these flexible work options, the existing Public Service (Working Time) Regulations from 1990 to 2023 will be unified and modernized, leading to the adoption of new regulations, which will replace the current ones.

According to the announcement, in order to apply these flexible work forms, all services that have not yet done so will be required to install appropriate electronic systems to monitor employee arrivals and departures. These systems will also be necessary for the electronic submission of telework requests.