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MOL Issues New Domestic Workers Regulation

The Ministry of Labour published in this week’s of the Official Gazette Ministerial Decision 574/2025 Issuing the Governance Regulation for the Work of Domestic Workers and Their Equivalent, which marks a significant regulatory shift, enlarges the scope of protection, and enhances the rights of domestic workers. This decision replaces the former Ministerial Decision 189/2004 regarding the Terms and Conditions of Employment for Domestic Workers.

Domestic workers are excluded from the scope of the Labour Law as they are considered to be one of the categories that are governed by special laws or systems. The new regulation has expanded the scope of those excluded categories from just domestic workers to 12 distinct categories including nannies, drivers, and others as listed in article 12 of the regulation. The new regulation introduces rules that are at times more restrictive and at other times less restrictive than the Labour Law. For example, the regulation requires the worker to be at least 21 years of age, whereas the Labour Law requires the worker to be at least 18 years of age and has provisions that allows hiring juvenile workers who are at least 15 years of age. The regulation also has some rules that are less restrictive than the Labour Law. For example, the working hours for domestic workers and their equivalent can be up to 12 hours per day, while the Labour Law caps this to 8 hours per day.

A significant new provision is introduced under article 31, which establishes an end-of-service gratuity for domestic workers upon the end of their employment contracts. This benefit was absent in the previous decision and is no longer found in the Labour Law.

This decision also amends pre-existing requirements regarding healthcare coverage. The previous decision only required employers to provide free local medical treatment throughout the contract period, the new decision mandates health insurance coverage for domestic workers.

The new regulation has already entered into force and employer have three months to comply with the law. You can read the decision in English in full on the link below: