Ending employment in Egypt: resignation, termination and notice
Egypt's Labour Law 14 of 2025: resignation ends service on acceptance or after ten days; an indefinite contract ends only for a legitimate, sufficient reason, on 3 months' notice.
By Social Insurance & Labour Department · 22 October 2026 · 11 min read
Executive summary
- A resignation is in writing, signed by the employee or a special attorney and approved by the competent administrative authority. Service ends only on the decision accepting it, or when ten days pass from its submission without a decision, and the employee may withdraw it within ten days of being notified of the acceptance, by a written withdrawal approved by the competent administrative authority (article 167 of Labour Law 14 of 2025).
- An indefinite contract may be ended only for a legitimate and sufficient reason (article 157), on three months' written notice that cannot be waived or shortened by agreement (articles 156 and 161); an employer that does not give it pays the wage for the notice period or the part remaining (article 164).
- An employer that ends such a contract for an illegitimate reason owes compensation of no less than two months' wage per year of service (article 165), and dismissal is for the labour court alone, and only for a serious fault (article 148).
- The contract ends on the employee's death or total disability, and may be ended at age sixty, for illness and for a criminal conviction, each on its own conditions (articles 169 to 174).
- Either party to an individual dispute may ask for an amicable settlement within ten days of the dispute arising, and the committee must finish within 21 days (article 149 and Minister of Labour Decree 299 of 2025).
- On partial closure or downsizing, the employer must still observe the statutory notice period and pay the employee all their entitlements, in particular cash for untaken leave and, as a minimum, the article 241 gratuity (article 5 of Minister of Labour Decree 301 of 2025).
The end of a fixed-term contract is covered in Fixed-term and indefinite employment contracts in Egypt, and the notices due when service ends in Hiring and leaving notices to Egypt's labour office and Egypt's social insurance Forms 1, 2 and 6. Ending a contract during probation is covered in Probation periods in Egypt, and the end-of-service gratuity in our bulletin on the end-of-service gratuity.
How the employment relationship ends
The Labour Law issued by Law 14 of 2025 has applied since 1 September 2025 (article 13 of the issuing law). Its seventh chapter, "the end of the individual employment relationship", is articles 154 to 175.
| Way the relationship ends | Article |
|---|---|
| Expiry of a fixed-term contract, or completion of a specific task | 154 and 155 |
| Termination on notice of an indefinite contract, by either party | 156 and 157 |
| Resignation | 167 |
| The employee is deemed to have resigned after more than twenty non-consecutive days' absence in a year, or more than ten consecutive days, without legitimate reason, once warned by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt after ten days' absence in the first case and five in the second | 166 |
| The employee ends the contract because the employer breached its essential obligations, or because the employer or its representative assaulted the employee or a relative; this counts as termination by the employer without a legitimate reason | 168 |
| Dismissal by the labour court | 148 |
| Death, and disability | 169 and 170 |
| Age sixty, illness, and a final criminal conviction | 171, 173 and 174 |
| Closure, or a reduction in size or activity, for economic necessity | 236 to 241 |
Minister of Labour Decree 162 of 2026 lists "a written agreement between the two parties to end the contract" among ten cases of ending the relationship regulated by the work regulation of an employer with ten or more workers, and gives the ten as examples ("including") (articles 2 and 60).
Resignation
An employee may resign in writing to the employer, provided the resignation is signed by the employee or a special attorney and approved by the competent administrative authority (article 167):
"The employee's service ends only by the decision accepting the resignation, and the employee must continue working until the employer decides on the resignation within ten days of its submission; otherwise it is deemed accepted when that period passes" (article 167, our translation).
The employee or the special attorney may withdraw the resignation within ten days of being notified that the employer has accepted it, by a written withdrawal approved by the same authority, and the resignation is then "deemed never to have been made". Because that period runs from notification, the acceptance should be given to the employee in writing and dated. Where a resignation is approved is set out in Hiring and leaving notices to Egypt's labour office.
The law also allows the employee to end an indefinite contract on three months' written notice (article 156), and the employer may release the employee from all or part of it (article 161). Articles 156 and 167 do not say how the two routes relate, and there are two readings. The first treats resignation as a separate route that binds the employee to the ten days alone; Decree 162 supports it by requiring the work regulation to deal with each reason separately, "without confusing ... resignation with the notice period" (article 61), and by providing that "the regulation may not provide for a notice period for resignation" (article 62). The second treats resignation as one form of the employee ending the contract, so that the notice in article 156 applies and article 167 governs its form and acceptance. We cite no court ruling on the point under the new law. In our view, as a precaution while the point is unsettled, a business should decide a resignation under the procedure and time limits of article 167; if it needs time for a handover, the safer course is a written agreement to end the contract with a notice period, which article 62 of the decree allows "only in cases where the relationship is ended by agreement of the parties, mutual rescission or consensual cancellation" (our translation).
Termination by the employer of an indefinite contract
"Employers and employees may not end an indefinite employment contract except for a legitimate and sufficient reason. In all cases, the termination must take place at a time suited to the circumstances of the work" (article 157, our translation).
Article 157 does not define a legitimate and sufficient reason. Article 165 lists six items "among the illegitimate reasons".
| Notice rule | Article |
|---|---|
| Written notice three months before termination; it may be lengthened by agreement, but not waived or shortened | 156 and 161 |
| Termination by the employer without notice or before the period ends: a sum equal to the employee's wage for the notice period or the part remaining, which counts as service | 164 |
Under the second paragraph of article 288, breach of articles 156 and 164 carries the penalty set in its first paragraph: a fine of EGP 500 to EGP 5,000, multiplied by the number of employees affected and doubled for a repeat offence.
Termination for an illegitimate reason, and dismissal
Where the employer ends an indefinite contract for an illegitimate reason, the employee is entitled to compensation for the harm "of no less than two months' wage for each year of service", without prejudice to the right to claim the employee's other legal entitlements (article 165). Articles 156, 164 and 165 are worded for indefinite contracts. Dismissal is a disciplinary penalty that only the competent labour court may impose, and "in all cases, the employee may not be dismissed unless they have committed a serious fault" (article 148, our translation); the article lists seven cases that count as a serious fault. Decree 162 requires the work regulation not to confuse "termination with disciplinary dismissal" (article 61). Investigations and penalties are covered in Egypt's work and disciplinary regulation.
Death, disability, age, illness and criminal conviction
- Death: where an employee dies in service, the employer pays the employee's family the equivalent of two months' wage, at the last wage, towards funeral expenses, with a minimum of EGP 1,000, and bears the cost of preparing and transporting the body (article 169).
- Disability: the contract ends when the employee becomes totally unable to do the work, whatever the cause. Partial disability does not end the relationship unless it is shown that the employer has no other work the employee can do satisfactorily; if there is such work, the employer must move the employee to it at the employee's written request (article 170).
- Age: the employer may end the contract when the employee reaches sixty, unless it is a fixed-term contract whose term runs beyond that age (article 171); see Retirement age and early pension in Egypt.
- Illness: "The employer is prohibited from ending the employee's contract because of the employee's illness unless the employee has used up their sick leave and the balance of their accrued annual leave" (article 173, our translation). The employer must notify the employee of its wish to end the contract before fifteen days have passed from the date that leave was used up, and if the employee recovers before the notice is complete, the employer may not end the contract for illness.
- Criminal conviction: the employer may end the contract, even if it is for a fixed term or a specific task, where the employee receives a final sentence for a felony, or a custodial sentence for an offence against honour or trust, unless the court suspends the sentence (article 174).
Breach of article 173 falls under the second paragraph of article 288. Under the second paragraph of article 295, breach of articles 169 and 170 carries the penalty set in its first paragraph: a fine of EGP 3,000 to EGP 10,000, multiplied by the number of employees affected and doubled for a repeat offence.
Closure and downsizing
The application to the committee and the notices are covered in Hiring and leaving notices to Egypt's labour office. For the individual employee:
- Where the employer is entitled to end contracts for economic reasons, it may instead amend the terms of the contract temporarily, in particular by assigning work not agreed, even if it differs from the original work, and by reducing the wage to no less than the minimum wage. If it does, the employee may end the contract without notice, and the termination is "a justified termination by both the employer and the employee" (article 241, our translation).
- The third paragraph of article 241 reads: "In all cases, the employee is entitled to a gratuity equal to one month's wage for each of the first five years of service and one and a half months' wage for each year beyond" (our translation). Its calculation is covered in our bulletin on the end-of-service gratuity. Breach of that paragraph falls under the second paragraph of article 295.
- On partial closure, or a reduction of activity or workforce, for an economic, technical or organisational reason "whose seriousness is established", the employees to be released may be chosen by criteria and priorities the first of which is seniority of appointment, unless objective technical reasons point the other way (articles 1 and 4 of Decree 301 of 2025). The decree does not affect "the employer's obligation to observe the legal notice period and to pay all the employee's financial entitlements, in particular cash in lieu of untaken leave, and the gratuity in article 241 ... as a minimum" (article 5, our translation).
Individual disputes and the amicable settlement committee
| Step | Time limit | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Request for amicable settlement by either party, to the labour directorate for the area where the establishment is located, on the prescribed form | Ten days from the dispute arising | Article 149; Decree 299, articles 1 and 3 |
| Committee finishes its work | 21 days from the request | Article 149; Decree 299, article 4 |
| Labour court hearing if no settlement is reached, at the request of either party | Within 20 days of the request | Article 150; Decree 299, article 5 |
| Expedited ruling where the dispute concerns the employee's dismissal | Three months from the first hearing | Article 150; Decree 299, article 6 |
Article 149 reads: "without prejudice to the right of recourse to the courts ... either of them may ... request its amicable settlement" (our translation). The minutes of a settlement reached become enforceable by order of the summary-matters judge at the competent labour court, and end the dispute to the extent settled. In a dismissal dispute, if the court sees from the face of the papers that the employee's claim is well founded, it "orders the employer to pay the employee the equivalent of their wage from the date of dismissal, up to a maximum of six months, and its decision is final" (article 150, our translation). Decree 299 was published in Al-Waqa'i Al-Misriya on 25 December 2025 and applies from the day after publication.
A clause or agreement contrary to the law is void if it reduces the employee's rights under it "or releases rights of the employee arising from the employment contract during its term, or within three months of its end" (article 6, our translation). In our view, a leaving settlement should be a receipt for stated amounts, item by item, not a general release.
What this requires
- A written decision on every approved resignation within ten days, notified to the employee.
- Before ending an indefinite contract: a written legitimate and sufficient reason that is not among those in article 165, and three months' written notice, or pay in lieu.
- Serious faults taken to the labour court rather than dismissal by the business's own decision.
- An absent employee warned by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt after ten non-consecutive or five consecutive days' absence, before being treated as having resigned.
- In illness: waiting until leave is used up, and notice within fifteen days of that date.
- On partial closure or downsizing: a written selection under the criteria of Decree 301, then the notice period, pay for untaken leave and the article 241 gratuity.
- On every departure: a receipt for stated amounts rather than a general release, then the labour office and social insurance notices.
The firm's Social Insurance & Labour Department reviews resignations, terminations and notice periods against the Labour Law and its decrees, calculates what is due to the employee when the relationship ends, and prepares the dispute file before it goes to the amicable settlement committee, as part of its social insurance and labour compliance services.
Mahmoud Nassef, Founder Partner
Chartered Accountant, Ministry of Finance, Egypt
Member, Egyptian Society of Accountants & Auditors
Member, Egyptian Tax Society
Member, Egyptian Society for Public Finance and Taxation
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Disclaimer: This bulletin is prepared for general information on the legislation in force at the date of its publication. It does not constitute a professional opinion or tax or legal advice on any particular matter, and it should not be relied upon in place of advice based on an examination of the circumstances of each case. Nassef & Partners International accepts no responsibility for any action taken, or refrained from, in reliance on its contents. The positions stated remain subject to subsequent legislation and decisions.