Work and the labor market dominate conversations across Egypt. This year has marked a turning point, with a comprehensive new labor law designed to keep pace with today’s economic realities.
Classified under Article 121 of the Egyptian Constitution as a “complementary law to the Constitution,” the Labor Law governs one of the country’s most fundamental rights. On May 3, 2025, Egypt’s Official Gazette published the landmark legislation following President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s ratification.
The sweeping reform, officially titled Law No. 14 of 2025, emerged from extensive consultations led by the Ministry of Labor before winning approval from the House of Representatives in April 2025. Its 298 articles represent Egypt’s most ambitious labor reform in decades, modernizing workplace protections to align with contemporary economic and social developments.
President El-Sisi hailed the legislation as “a qualitative leap in the journey of workers’ rights” during Labor Day celebrations at the Suez Steel Company, emphasizing how the law strengthens job protections, advances women’s rights, and brings Egyptian labor standards closer to international benchmarks.
Set to replace the long-standing Labor Law No. 12 of 2003, the new legislation takes effect on September 1, 2025, 90 days after its official publication.
Birth of Labor Organizing
At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, Egypt did not yet have legal legislation regulating labor relations between employers and workers. These harsh conditions led to the emergence of numerous labor strikes. In 1899, a strike was launched by cigarette rollers in Cairo, which began in December and continued until February 1900. The strike was triggered by the factory owners’ recourse to machinery, which resulted in the dismissal of a large number of workers and the reduction of wages for those who remained. The strike expanded to include workers in all cigarette factories in Cairo, and it ultimately led to the establishment of Egypt’s first workers’ union in 1899. The workers drew on the limited experience of earlier strikes, such as the 1894 strike by coal transport workers in Port Said who demanded higher wages, a strike that the government intervened to break up. However, the cigarette rollers’ strike is considered the true beginning of the trade union movement in Egypt, as it gave rise to the first organizational forms of labor unions.
Later on, a number of important legislations were eventually enacted, including Law No. 85 of 1942 on the Regulation of Trade Unions, the Compulsory Insurance Law for Work Accidents, and finally the Individual Labor Law No. 41 of 1944. Following the July 1952 Revolution, the Unified Labor Law No. 91 of 1959 was issued, and subsequent laws continued to be enacted until the current Labor Law of 2003.
According to Egypt’s Minister of Labor, Mohamed Gobran, the new legislation was essential to correct the imbalance in the labor market between supply and demand, to keep pace with the rapid transformations Egypt is experiencing across infrastructure, industry, agriculture, and trade, and to create a legislative framework capable of attracting both national and foreign investment while enhancing the role of the private sector in driving economic growth.
New Shifts in Labor
Under the new Labor Law, particularly Article 96, the definition of “work” has been broadened to include all forms of employment, whether dependent, self-employed, freelance, or undertaken on one’s own account. This wider scope explicitly covers all professions, trades, and crafts, and in particular extends to domestic work, such as housekeeping.
With regard to disciplinary measures, Article 168 radically redefines the legal treatment of absenteeism. While the current law allowed for dismissal based on prolonged unauthorized absences, the new law now treats such cases as actual resignation. An employee who is absent for ten consecutive days or twenty intermittent days without justification is considered to have resigned, but only after receiving an official warning via registered mail. This procedural requirement is intended to protect employees from arbitrary and sudden dismissal.
Maternity benefits have likewise been strengthened. Now, the period of leave is 120 days as opposed to the previous 90 days, with women employees permitted to be on maternity leave three times during their career, as compared to twice previously. Importantly, the condition was also removed, allowing employees to qualify for maternity leave on their first day rather than after they had completed 10 months of service. In addition, for the first time, paternity leave has been introduced under Article 56, granting fathers one fully paid day off on the day of childbirth, up to three times during their employment.
Among the new concepts introduced under the law are provisions to combat sexual harassment, bullying, and workplace violence. The law clearly mandates that employers must cultivate a safe, violence-free working environment. Moreover, establishments with 20 or more employees are now required to hire at least five percent of their workforce from among persons of determination. To accomplish the purpose of this inclusion programme, the Law further requires employers to maintain a register of employees in this category, be it in either digital or physical form.
Additionally, the specialized labor courts created under the new framework will begin operating on 1 October 2025 with the aim of handling employment disputes swiftly and fairly by providing an independent judicial forum for resolving conflicts between employers and workers. Accordingly, appellate circuits will be established within each court of appeal to hear challenges to decisions issued by the labor courts, with a further appeal available before the Court of Cassation. Article 143 mandates the creation of a specialized labor judiciary. Labor courts must issue decisions in dismissal cases within three months from the first hearing. This marks a clear improvement over the old law, which relied on general civil courts that lacked both procedural efficiency and sectoral expertise. In line with this move towards faster and more streamlined dispute resolution, Article 151 establishes a specialized center for mediation and arbitration, offering both workers and employers more flexible and less adversarial alternatives, whether in individual or collective disputes. In this way, the new law combines judicial specialization with alternative mechanisms, seeking to strike a fairer and more efficient balance that aligns with international labor standards.
According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), the number of employed individuals in Egypt rose to 29.928 million in 2024, up 3.3% from 28.959 million in 2023. More recently, Egypt’s unemployment rate fell to 6.1% in the second quarter of 2025, down from 6.3% in the previous quarter. These figures highlight a continued improvement in Egypt’s labor market, reflecting steady growth in employment and overall economic activity. Notably, since the founding of the International Labor Organization in 1919, Egypt has ratified 65 international labor conventions and incorporates their application into its legislation, including the new Labor Law.
