Egypt: Employment and HR

The regulation of women’s employment has long required legislators to strike a balance between two competing objectives which are ensuring equal access to employment opportunities while protecting women from the risks associated with pregnancy, breastfeeding, and hazardous working conditions. Increasingly, labour legislation has sought to achieve this balance by adopting targeted measures aimed at safeguarding maternity and addressing occupational health and safety concerns without unnecessarily limiting women’s participation in the labour market.

Egypt's Ministerial Decree No. 75 of 2026 establishes a new regulatory framework governing women's employment, maternity protection, and occupational health and safety requirements. The decree balances equal employment opportunities with targeted protections during pregnancy and nursing, addressing chemical, physical, biological, and mechanical workplace hazards while regulating night work arrangements.

Foreign-owned companies hiring in Egypt cannot simply adapt a global employment template and assume that its standard clauses will work locally. Egyptian employment relationships now fall primarily under Labour Law No. 14 of 2025, which entered into force on 1 September 2025 and replaced the previous Labour Law No. 12 of 2003.