Annual leave under Egypt's Labour Law 14/2025: 15 days in year one, a tier that turns on your age, and the written refusal that forfeits your pay in lieu

Legal information, not legal advice. Mohamy.ai is not a law firm and is not licensed to practise law or to provide legal consultancy in Egypt, the UAE or Saudi Arabia. This page describes the law of the Arab Republic of Egypt in general terms as it stood on 20 August 2026. It is not advice about your situation.

Your annual leave is 15 days in the first year, 21 days from the second year, 30 days if you have completed ten full years with one or more employers or if you are over fifty, and 45 days for persons with disabilities and dwarfs. That is Article 124 of the Labour Law annexed to Law No. 14 of 2025, and official holiday and occasion days and the weekly rest do not count towards it, so those are clear days.

Three things get dropped from every summary of this article:

1. Item 3 has two alternative conditions, not one. The thirty days arise for someone who has completed ten full years or for someone over fifty. A worker who started at 52 is on 30 days from their second year, not 21. Section 1.
2. A written refusal forfeits the money. Article 125: a worker who refuses in writing to take the leave on the date and for the duration the employer fixed and of which they were notified loses the right to claim its equivalent. Section 3.
3. Casual leave is not an extra allowance. Article 128 makes it counted against the annual leave. Section 4.

Scope. Egypt, private sector. Employees of the organs of the State including local administration units and public bodies, and domestic workers and those in their position, are excluded by the first promulgating article.

On language. Egypt publishes no official English text of this law. Each quotation is the Arabic of the Official Gazette with our own English beside it. Our English is ours.

1. The text, and the four tiers

Article 124:

يستحق العامل إجازة سنوية بأجر ، لا يدخل فى حسابها أيام عطلات الأعياد والمناسبات الرسمية والراحة الأسبوعية ، وذلك على الوجه الآتى : ١- خمسة عشر يومًا فى السنة الأولى . ٢- واحد وعشرون يومًا اعتبارًا من السنة الثانية . ٣- ثلاثون يومًا لمن أمضى عشر سنوات كاملة لدى صاحب عمل أو أكثر ، أو لمن تجاوزت سنه خمسين عامًا . ٤- خمسة وأربعون يومًا للأشخاص ذوى الإعاقة والأقزام . وإذا قلت مدة خدمة العامل عن سنة تكون إجازته بنسبة المدة التى قضاها في العمل بشرط أن يكون قد أمضى ستة أشهر على الأقل فى خدمة صاحب العمل . وفى جميع الأحوال ، تزاد مدة الإجازة السنوية بمقدار سبعة أيام للعمال الذين يعملون فى الأعمال الخطرة ، أو المضرة بالصحة ، أو فى المناطق النائية ، والتى يصدر بتحديدها قرار من الوزير المختص بعد أخذ رأى الجهات المعنية .

Our English: the worker is entitled to annual leave with pay, in the counting of which the days of holidays for feasts and official occasions and the weekly rest are not included, as follows. (1) Fifteen days in the first year. (2) Twenty-one days as from the second year. (3) Thirty days for whoever has completed ten full years with one employer or more, or for whoever has exceeded fifty years of age. (4) Forty-five days for persons with disabilities and dwarfs. And if the worker's period of service is less than a year, their leave is in proportion to the period they spent at work, on condition that they have completed at least six months in the employer's service. And in all cases, the annual leave is increased by seven days for workers who work in hazardous or unhealthy work, or in remote areas, which are determined by a decision of the competent Minister after obtaining the opinion of the concerned authorities.

Two phrases in item 3 repay careful reading. The first is "with one employer or more": on the face of the text the ten years need not be with a single employer, they aggregate. The second is "or for whoever has exceeded fifty years of age": a wholly independent alternative condition that has nothing to do with service. That is the tier missing from most published tables, and it favours exactly the people who entered the workforce late or moved between employers.

And the seven extra days depend on a decision we do not hold. The final paragraph adds seven days for hazardous or unhealthy work or remote areas, "which are determined by a decision of the competent Minister after obtaining the opinion of the concerned authorities". We do not hold that decision, so we cannot tell you whether your particular work falls inside the determination. The rule is certain; its application to your trade is not ours to state.

Worked, so you can check it:

• Second-year worker in work classified as hazardous: 21 + 7 = 28 days.
• Worker aged 52 in the same work: 30 + 7 = 37 days.
• A person with a disability in a classified remote area: 45 + 7 = 52 days.

2. Less than a year: a proportion, and two arithmetics the Law does not choose between

The second paragraph of Article 124: where service is less than a year, leave is in proportion to the period spent at work, on condition that at least six months have been completed in the employer's service.

So the condition is a threshold and the result is a proportion. Under six months, this paragraph gives nothing. At six months or more and under a year, leave is proportionate to the part of the first year worked, and the base is 15 days.

The text fixes neither the numerator nor the denominator, so two defensible arithmetics exist. For eight months of service:

• Calendar months: 15 x 8/12 = 10.0 days.
• On the Article 2 basis, a thirty-day month and a 365-day year: eight months is 8 x 30 = 240 days, so 15 x 240/365 = 9.86 days.

So we report the range, 9.86 to 10.0 days, and not a single confident figure. The gap is small here and grows with the number of days, but the principle is the point: anyone who gives you one number has chosen a denominator the statute does not supply.

Article 2 is a genuinely useful provision across this whole Law:

فى تطبيق أحكام هذا القانون تعتبر السنة ( ٣٦٥) يومًا ، والشهر ثلاثون يومًا ما لم يتم الاتفاق على خلاف ذلك .

Our English: in applying the provisions of this Law, the year is considered 365 days and the month thirty days, unless otherwise agreed.

The divisor is in the statute, unlike other laws in the region where the same conversion rests on somebody's convention. Note the qualification, "unless otherwise agreed": if your contract or your establishment's regulation sets a different basis, that is the one that applies.

3. Article 125: where the leave is used or lost

This is the article in this part that most affects your money.

يحدد صاحب العمل مواعيد الإجازة السنوية حسب مقتضيات العمل وظروفه ، ولا يجوز قطعها إلا لأسباب قوية تقتضيها مصلحة العمل . ولا يجوز للعامل النزول عن إجازته ، ويلتزم بالقيام بالإجازة فى التاريخ ، والمدة التى حددها صاحب العمل وتم إخطاره بها ، وإذا رفض العامل كتابة القيام بالإجازة سقط حقه فى اقتضاء مقابلها . وفى جميع الأحوال ، يجب أن يحصل العامل على إجازة سنوية مدتها خمسة عشر يومًا ، منها ستة أيام متصلة على الأقل ، ويلتزم صاحب العمل بتسوية رصيد الإجازات ، أو الأجر المقابل له كل ثلاث سنوات على الأكثر ، فإذا انتهت علاقة العمل قبل استنفاد العامل رصيد إجازته السنوية استحق الأجر المقابل لهذا الرصيد . ولا يجوز تجزئة الإجازة أو ضمها أو تأجيلها بالنسبة للأطفال والأشخاص ذوى الإعاقة والأقزام .

Our English, in five limbs:

1. The employer fixes the dates according to the requirements and circumstances of the work, and the leave may not be interrupted except for strong reasons required by the interest of the work. So interruption is not an unqualified employer power.
2. The worker may not relinquish their leave. Waiving the leave itself is not permitted.
3. The forfeiture, and know this before you write anything. A worker who refuses in writing to take the leave on the date and for the duration the employer fixed and of which they were notified loses the right to claim its equivalent. Three cumulative conditions: the refusal must be in writing, the employer must have fixed a date and duration, and you must have been notified of it. So not every failure to take leave forfeits the money. A written refusal of a notified fixing does.
4. A mandatory minimum: in all cases the worker must obtain annual leave of 15 days, of which at least six consecutive. That is an obligation on the employer, not a permission for you.
5. Settlement at least every three years, and where the employment relationship ends before the balance is used up, the worker is entitled to the wage corresponding to that balance.

And the last paragraph is absolute: the leave may not be split, aggregated or postponed for children, persons with disabilities and dwarfs. Their leave is not deferred even with consent.

The leave balance on termination, worked. A balance of 10 days, monthly wage EGP 6,000, employment ended:

• The base: Article 125 says the wage corresponding to the balance.
• Daily wage on the Article 2 thirty-day month: 6,000 / 30 = EGP 200.
• Payable: 10 x 200 = EGP 2,000.

Which wage? Article 125 says "the wage corresponding to" without limiting it to the basic wage, and Article 1 item 4 defines wage as everything the worker receives in return for their work, in cash or in kind, comprising the basic wage and the variable wage. So on the face of the text the base is the total wage. That favours you, but what the courts apply in practice is unverified by us, because we hold no case law. Do not build on a figure; build on the basis, then check.

And the deadline that matters next: Article 108 item 4 obliges the employer to pay the wage and all amounts due within not more than seven days from the date the worker demands them. From the demand, not from the end of service. So ask for your leave balance in writing, and date it.

4. The other leaves, and which ones come out of your balance

This is the table people get wrong most often, because some of these come out of the annual entitlement and some do not.

Article 128:

للعامل أن ينقطع عن العمل لسبب عارض لمدة لا تجاوز سبعة أيام خلال السنة ، وبحد أقصى يومان فى المرة الواحدة ، وتحسب الإجازة العارضة من الإجازة السنوية المقررة للعامل . وللعامل الذى يولد له مولود الحق فى إجازة طارئة مدفوعة الأجر يوم الولادة لا تحسب من رصيد إجازاته السنوية ، بحد أقصى ثلاث مرات طوال مدة الخدمة .

Our English: the worker may be absent from work for an incidental reason for a period not exceeding seven days during the year, with a maximum of two days at a time, and the casual leave is counted from the annual leave prescribed for the worker. And a worker to whom a child is born has the right to an urgent leave, paid, on the day of the birth, not counted from the balance of their annual leave, with a maximum of three times throughout the period of service.

Compare the two paragraphs inside one article: casual leave is counted from the annual leave, and the father's day of birth is not counted from the balance of annual leave. The legislature drew that distinction expressly, in a single article. A worker who treats casual leave as an extra allowance on top of the annual entitlement is losing seven days without realising it.

Examination leave, Article 126, carries two different deadlines:

• To fix the date of your annual leave where you are sitting an examination: notify the employer at least fifteen days before taking the leave.
• To obtain paid study leave for the actual examination days, not counted from your annual balance: notify the employer at least ten days before, and prove that you actually sat the examination.

The deadlines differ because the entitlements differ, 15 days for the first and 10 for the second.

Hajj leave, Article 130: a worker who has completed five continuous years in an employer's service is entitled to one month's paid leave to perform the Hajj or to visit Jerusalem, once throughout their period of service. Note "continuous": the condition is continuity of service, not its total.

Holidays and feasts, Article 129: paid leave on the holidays, feasts and occasions determined by a decision of the competent Minister, and for non-Muslims on their religious feasts the provisions of the Cabinet decision on the matter apply. If the circumstances of the work require you to work on one, you are entitled, in addition to your wage for that day, to twice that wage, or to be given another day in lieu on a written request from you deposited in your personal file.

The choice is conditioned on your written request. So a worker who wants a day off rather than the money has to ask in writing; otherwise the default in the text is the money. And we do not hold the competent Minister's decision determining the holidays, so we cannot count them for you or state how many there are.

One provision that runs against you, Article 127:

لصاحب العمل أن يحرم العامل من أجره عن مدة الإجازة ، أو يسترد ما أداه من أجر عنها ، إذا ثبت اشتغاله خلالها لدى الغير ، وذلك دون إخلال بالجزاء التأديبي .

Our English: the employer may deprive the worker of their wage for the period of the leave, or recover what it paid of it, if it is proven that they worked for another during it, and that is without prejudice to disciplinary liability. So working for someone else during your leave exposes the leave pay to forfeiture or recovery, and does not preclude a disciplinary penalty on top.

5. What this page does not tell you

• Whether your work is hazardous, unhealthy or in a remote area. Article 124 refers the determination to a decision of the competent Minister after obtaining the opinion of the concerned authorities, and we do not hold it. The seven days depend on that determination.
• How many official holidays there are. Article 129 refers them to a decision of the competent Minister, and we do not hold it.
• Which wage base is applied in practice to pay in lieu of a leave balance on termination. The text says "the wage corresponding to" and Article 1's definition is inclusive, so on the face of the text it is the total wage. What courts apply is unverified by us.
• The correct pro-rata figure in the first year. The text fixes no denominator, so we give the range.
• Any limitation period. The Law states none, so we state no number.

6. What to do now, in order

1. Work out your tier under Article 124, and start with your age, not your service. Over fifty puts you in the thirty-day tier even in your second year.
2. Add up your service across employers. Item 3 says "with one employer or more", so on the face of the text the ten years aggregate.
3. Do not put a refusal of leave in writing. Article 125 forfeits your right to the money on a written refusal of a fixing you were notified of. If you have a real reason, discuss it without signing a refusal.
4. Review your balance every three years. Article 125 obliges the employer to settle the balance or its wage at least every three years.
5. Check you actually received 15 days including six consecutive. That is an obligation on the employer in all cases.
6. If you are sitting an examination, notify on the right deadline: 15 days to fix the annual leave date, 10 days for the examination-day leave, with proof you sat the examination.
7. On termination, ask for the balance in writing and date it. Article 108 item 4: seven days from the date of the demand.

7. When to get a licensed lawyer

• If the dispute is about which wage the leave balance is paid on, because the gap between basic and total wage in a package with substantial allowances is large.
• If you signed a written refusal of leave and are now claiming the money, or the money has been refused to you on the strength of Article 125.
• If your entitlement depends on your work being hazardous, unhealthy or remote, because that turns on a ministerial decision we do not hold.
• If your contract was terminated after you took leave, because Article 165 lists "the worker's use of the right to the leave granted to them under the provisions of this Law" among the unlawful reasons for termination, with compensation of not less than two months' wage for each year of service.
• If a long time has passed since your service ended. The Law states no limitation period.

8. Before arguing about a single day: read your contract and your establishment's regulation together

Article 2 makes the month thirty days "unless otherwise agreed", and Article 6 preserves any better benefits or conditions prescribed in individual or collective employment contracts, basic regulations, other establishment regulations, or by custom. So your contractual leave may be more generous than the statutory floor, and that applies.

Mohamy.ai document analysis reads your contract and your establishment's regulation if you have it, in Arabic or in English, and puts your leave clause beside the tiers of Article 124 and the provisions of Article 125, showing whether your clause is better than the Law, in which case Article 6 preserves it, or worse, in which case it is void in that respect.

It does not tell you what to do, and it is not a substitute for a licensed lawyer if you are in a dispute. Bring the contract, take the comparison, then go with the right document.

About this guide

What we are. Mohamy.ai publishes general legal information. We are not a law firm. We are not members of the Egyptian Bar Association under Law No. 17 of 1983 on Advocacy. We are not entered on the roll of lawyers and legal consultants held by the UAE Ministry of Justice under Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2022. We are not registered under the Saudi Code of Law Practice.Nothing on this page is legal advice, an opinion on your case, or a prediction of any outcome. No lawyer and client relationship is created and no duty of care is owed to you.

The Arabic governs, and this page is our translation. There is no official English text of Law No. 14 of 2025 or of the Labour Law annexed to it. Egypt publishes neither. Every quotation on this page is given in the Arabic of the Official Gazette, with our own English rendering beside it, labelled as ours. Where our English and the Arabic differ, the Arabic is the law and our English is not. If the wording matters to your case, work from the Arabic, or from our Arabic page, which is the primary version of this guide and not a translation.

What this page does not cover. It does not cover employees of the organs of the State including local administration units and public bodies, or domestic workers and those in their position: both are excluded by the first promulgating article. It does not cover the Social Insurance and Pensions Law No. 148 of 2019, Law No. 133 of 1961 on the employment of workers in industrial establishments, any implementing ministerial decision, or any court judgment. We hold none of those, and the page says so at each point where the answer turns on one.

How current this is. Every legal statement here was checked against the primary source below on 20 August 2026. No instrument amending Law No. 14 of 2025 was found as at 17 August 2026, and we record that as a negative search result rather than as confirmation from a gazette index.

Deadlines. Limitation periods and filing deadlines can extinguish an otherwise valid claim permanently. Do not rely on any period stated here. The Law states no limitation period for a worker's claim, and the rule that does govern sits in an instrument we do not hold, which is a reason to hurry rather than a reason to relax.

Sources. Law No. 14 of 2025 promulgating the Labour Law, and the Labour Law annexed to it. Official Gazette (الجريدة الرسمية), Issue No. 18 (supplement), 3 May 2025, Arabic, 110 pages, pinned SHA-256 e14a24d8...a0ead3f5, retrieved 17 August 2026 and cross-checked against a second official copy on a different government host. Quotations were extracted mechanically from that file into an internal corpus of 312 chunks. No character of the legal text was typed by a person or produced by a language model.

How this was produced. Drafted with the assistance of AI and checked against the primary legislation cited above before publication. If you believe anything here is wrong or out of date, write to contact@mohamy.ai and we will correct or withdraw it.

Finding a licensed lawyer. Egypt: the Egyptian Bar Association. At court: the labour legal assistance office required by Article 185 of the Labour Law, whose services are optional and free, established at the seat of every Court of First Instance and at every other seat where the Labour Court sits.