Labor law in Yemen

The Labour Code applies mainly to private employers and employees in Yemen. Public-sector employment follows Civil Service Law 19/1991, while separate rules affect the judiciary, diplomatic and consular services, military and security services, some foreign workers, casual work, domestic work, family employment and much of agriculture and pastoral work. Agricultural enterprises and permanent work involving machinery or irrigation can fall within the Labour Code. Arabic is the controlling language for employment documents. The Constitution, Trade Unions Law 35/2002 and Social Insurance Law 13 of 2013 also provide part of the framework. Employment contracts may be written or oral, but a written contract gives clearer evidence. The normal contract has no fixed end date. A written contract should be prepared in three copies and state the wage, type and place of work, start date and duration where applicable. Probation can last up to six months and may be used once for the same job. When no written contract exists, the employee carries the burden of proving the employment terms. Yemeni employment administration is generally free for Yemeni workers and jobseekers can register with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour or a Labour Office. Employers are expected to report vacancies within seven days; the Ministry may nominate a jobseeker within fifteen days before the employer fills the vacancy. An Aden MOSAL digital portal supports facility and worker registration, local and foreign workforce procedures, job searches and labor complaints, but its effective reach is regional rather than uniformly nationwide. Normal working time is limited to eight hours per day and forty-eight hours per week over six working days, with one paid weekly rest day. During Ramadan, the limit is six hours per day and thirty-six hours per week. A break may last up to one hour, and continuous work should not exceed five hours. Night work runs from 20:00 to 05:00, and continuous night work is limited to one month. Normal work and overtime together should not exceed twelve hours per day. Friday is the usual weekly rest day, although an equivalent arrangement may be used. Employees receive at least thirty paid annual-leave days. Statutory sick leave is paid at 100 percent for the first two months, 85 percent for the third and fourth months, 75 percent for the fifth and sixth months, and 50 percent for the seventh and eighth months. Work injuries and occupational diseases can give rise to fully paid leave while medical and social-insurance assessment is pending. Hajj leave can last twenty paid days after four years of service and is available once. Contingency leave can reach ten days per year. The wage floor is linked to the minimum used for state administration, but no reliable current nationwide Yemeni rial amount is established in the available evidence. Piece-rate work also has a statutory floor. Overtime is paid at 1.5 times the normal rate, or twice the normal rate for night work, weekly rest days and public holidays, in addition to the holiday wage. Night work carries a 15 percent allowance, and shift work carries a 10 percent allowance when it exceeds ten working days in a month. Monthly wages are due no later than the sixth day of the following month, half-monthly wages no later than the third day, and weekly workers are paid at least weekly. Amounts due at termination should be paid by the following day, with the Code providing a six-day period for a worker's resignation-related settlement. Women and men receive equal pay, and Yemeni and non-Yemeni workers should receive equal pay when qualification, experience and working conditions are equivalent. Pregnant and breastfeeding employees have reduced working time of five hours per day from the sixth month of pregnancy until the end of the sixth month after birth. Overtime is prohibited during that period. Maternity leave is sixty days at full pay, with an additional twenty days for a difficult birth or twins. An establishment with at least fifty female workers must provide childcare arrangements. A child under fifteen may not be employed. Young workers are generally limited to seven hours per day and forty-two hours per week and may not work overtime, at night, on weekly rest days or public holidays; guardian consent and protection from hazardous work also apply. Employers are responsible for a safe workplace, hazard controls, ventilation and lighting, drinking water, sanitation, fire exits, accident and occupational-disease records, protective equipment, medical examinations and first aid without wage deductions. A nurse is required above fifty workers and a doctor or medical facility above one hundred workers. Inspectors may enter workplaces, examine conditions and take samples. They can order a dangerous machine to stop for up to one week, with a longer stoppage decided by an Arbitration Committee. Yemen has no functioning national inspection strategy in the available assessment, many small or high-risk workplaces are not visited, and occupational injuries and diseases are underreported. The General Corporation for Social Insurance, known as GCSI, is the formal private-sector social-insurance institution. Employer registration and coverage are mandatory in the formal system. Contributions total 18 percent of wages: 7 percent from the worker and 11 percent from the employer. Coverage includes old-age, disability and death benefits, pensions or lump sums, work-injury benefits, medical treatment and temporary incapacity support. A worker can approach a GCSI branch if an employer has not registered the employment. Branches operate in places including Sana'a, Taiz, Hudaydah, Ibb, Dhamar, Aden, Hadramaut and Seiyun, but access is not uniform across conflict lines. An uninsured worker may have a severance claim of at least one month's wage for each year of service. An employer may dismiss a worker immediately only for a statutory serious ground. Ordinary termination grounds include breach of duty, permanent closure, technical or economic reduction, repeated absence exceeding thirty days in a year or fifteen consecutive days after warnings, retirement and medical unfitness. Notice is generally thirty days for monthly-paid workers, fifteen days for half-monthly workers and seven days for daily, weekly, hourly or piece-rate workers. Statutory leave, an ongoing dispute investigation lasting up to four months and work-related detention pending a final decision receive protection against dismissal. An Arbitration Committee may award up to six months' wages for arbitrary dismissal. The employer must provide a termination certificate free of charge. Negotiations over renewal of a fixed-term contract can continue the employment relationship for up to three months. Workers and employers may freely establish or join organizations, and union representatives receive protection against dismissal or discipline for lawful union activity. A collective agreement must be written, approved by a workers' general meeting, reviewed and registered by the Ministry, and becomes effective after thirty days without an objection. A strike is permitted only after a final decision has not been complied with and requires several formal steps, including specified meeting attendance and approval thresholds, General Federation approval, a dispute affecting more than one third of the workforce and at least three weeks' notice. Health, telecommunications, electricity, water, gas and oil, sanitation, banking, airports, ports, customs, food production, agriculture and fisheries, and prisons have minimum-service requirements. Practical union participation is limited in many areas. A labor dispute normally starts with direct negotiation for up to one month. If it remains unresolved, the Labour Office or MOSAL mediates for up to two weeks. The matter can then go to a tripartite Arbitration Committee within a further two weeks; the committee includes a Ministry chair, an employer representative and a worker representative. Its target is an award within thirty days of the first hearing. An appeal goes to the Labour Division of the Court of Appeal within one month, with the first appeal hearing targeted within fifteen days and a final judgment within thirty days. Labor cases are exempt from court fees. Local or tribal mediation is widespread, but it has formal legal enforceability only when recorded in an official settlement or decision. Ministry figures recorded 269 cases in 2018, 183 in 2019, 259 in 2021 and 110 in the first half of 2022; the proportion settled varied substantially. Foreign workers generally need work and residence permits, proof of qualifications and medical fitness, evidence that no suitable Yemeni worker is available, and a contract stating the relevant benefits. Employers should provide a Yemeni counterpart or training arrangement and register the worker within two weeks. The usual foreign-worker share is capped at 10 percent, permit fees apply and renewal should be requested at least one month before expiry. These rules belong to the labor-law boundary; immigration and employment-placement questions may require separate treatment. The central practical risk in Yemen is the gap between formal legal rights and effective access, especially for unpaid wages, weak inspection, fragmented jurisdiction and workers outside formal coverage.