The regulatory employment law landscape is rapidly changing and comes with an ever-increasing complexity, which makes it challenging for multinationals to manage compliance with the applicable rules. This guide contains summaries of the employment law rules regarding hiring and dismissing employees in 60+ countries, and analyzes them to discover the similarities and differences.
This guide sets out the employment law rules on hiring and dismissal in 64 countries.
It contains a summary overview of domestic employment laws without specific industry focus. The guide also does not include regional, state or province legislation (except for Canada, where the analysis only covers Ontario).
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Countries covered
Each of the 64 countries in scope has its own country page, summarizing the onboarding specifics when hiring employees (e.g., types of employment contracts, whether there is a need to establish a legal entity when hiring someone, etc.) as well as the rules when dismissing employees (e.g., if the employer needs to give notice or pay a severance indemnity, the collective dismissal thresholds etc.)
As of 2023, two new chapters were introduced related to remote work and equal pay.
When companies want to employ people, especially when it concerns a first hire in a new territory, some insights on the employment laws of that country are required. Generally, the analysis shows that, irrespective of the location, and notwithstanding regional or country specifics and differences, similar matters need to be considered, or questions asked, when hiring employees.
Although in most countries employers are obliged to register in that country for tax purposes when hiring employees, it is not always required to establish a legal entity. There are, however, quite a few countries where no separate legal entity is to be established for the purpose of hiring employees, but a branch office is to be opened instead.
In the majority of countries, a written employment contract is mandatory. This is particularly true for specific types of employment contracts, such as fixed-term contracts. Some countries do not explicitly require written employment contracts, but the employer has to provide a written statement with some key details regarding the employment relationship (such as remuneration, working hours, time of payment, vacation entitlements etc.).
In just under 50% of the countries, there are no language requirements when it comes to drafting an employment contract, as long as the parties to the agreement understand its content. As such, the agreement can be drafted in a mutually understood language.
In all other countries, it is mandated that the employment contract be drafted in (one of) the national language(s). In these countries, parties can always provide a translation of the contract in another language, but in case of discrepancies between both versions, the version in the official language will always prevail.
In case there is no employment contract in the official language, the most common consequence is that the contract cannot be used as evidence in court, or is not enforceable until a translation has been provided.
The probation period is the period at the beginning of the employment during which the employee is “on trial”, meaning that he/she is being assessed to determine whether the contract will become permanent. In general, during the probation period, it is easier to dismiss an employee because either a shorter notice period applies, or the dismissal does not need to be motivated.
In almost all countries it is allowed to include probationary periods in the employment contracts. The exceptions are Belgium and Chile, where probation periods are not allowed by law. Thai labor law is silent on probation periods, but in practice, parties can agree to put it in place.
The maximum term of the probation period often depends on the job level. The higher the rank, the longer the probation period can be. In France for example, the maximum probation period is two months for office workers, but four months for executives.
In 22 countries it is mandatory to organize a medical examination before hiring someone, regardless of the position they are applying for. In most countries, medical examinations are only mandatory for specific functions or not required at all.
In most countries, reference and education checks are permissible with consent of the individual, bearing in mind data protection and privacy considerations. For criminal background checks, either consent of the individual is required, or the employee needs to be applying for specific jobs justifying such a check. In 14 countries, however, criminal background checks are allowed for each hiring.
In about 60% of countries, executives are considered as employees, which means they are working under an employment contract and protected by employment legislation. In most of these countries, they do not however fully enjoy the same protection as regular employees, as they fall outside the scope of some specific regulations (for example, executives are often excluded from working time regulations).
In about 30% of countries, executives can either work under an employment contract or on a self-employed basis. If they are self-employed, their rights are not governed by employment law, but by commercial law and the terms agreed on in their contract with the company.
Finally, in about 10% of countries, executives work on a self-employed basis.
In more than half of the countries, there is legislation regulating the possibility of remote work. This legislation has been introduced years ago in some countries, but as the pandemic accelerated the expansion and popularity of remote work, many jurisdictions felt the need to introduce some (new) legislation at that point in time. Instead of legislation, some countries only have some guidelines for employees, e.g. Singapore and Taiwan. In other countries, legislative discussions are still ongoing, e.g. in Cyprus and Poland.
When employees are allowed to work remotely, mostly, an addendum to the employment agreement is to be drafted, since some rights and obligations need to be specified further.
In a limited amount of countries, a distinction is made between different types of remote work. For example in Albania, Belgium and Slovakia, there is a difference between home work and telework, meaning different rules might apply depending on the specific situation.
Where there is legislation regarding remote work, most of the time, no validation is required from the employee representative body of the agreement made (e.g. in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Greece, Italy, Ukraine, etc.). In some countries, it depends on the format containing the rules on remote work. For example in Bulgaria, if the rules are laid down in an internal act of the employer, the representatives of the employees need to be consulted. In France, there is an obligation to consult staff representatives in case of the implementation of telework via a charter. In Japan, there is a consultation obligation if the work rules are amended to introduce remote work within a company.
Finally, in most countries where remote working legislation exists, employers are required to intervene at least partially in the employee’s (additional) expenses. This can be done both on a lump sum basis as by way of a reimbursement of actual expenses. Both systems occur in about 18 of the investigated jurisdictions. The lump sum allowances can vary between 1 EUR a day in the Czech Republic up to +- 170 EUR per month in Belgium.
For more information regarding remote work, please visit our remote work survey via this link.
When it comes to equal pay, most of the countries have general non-discrimination regulations in place, stating that employees are entitled to the same salary for the same work or work of the same value, and that no discrimination is allowed based on different criteria, amongst others gender.
Some countries however already have very specific equal pay legislation in place. In the United States for example, some specific states such as California and Washington have laws requiring employers to provide applicants and employees salary ranges upon making an offer, of after an interview. Also, employers are required to include salary ranges on job postings. In some other states, pay data reporting laws are in place, and large companies must obtain a certificate proving compliance with applicable equal pay laws. In Sweden, employers having more than 25 employees are required to do an annual salary survey to identify salary differences related to gender.
In some countries, legislation is available, without there being any sanctions foreseen in case of non-compliance, such as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile and Venezuela.
If sanctions are foreseen, this can be a monetary fine, but sometimes, the sanction is reputational damage meaning the authorities publicly announce the company not complying with the rules on equal pay.
On 30 March 2023, the European Parliament adopted the legislative proposal of the European Commission on pay transparency measures. Amongst other measures, employers need to provide information about the initial pay level or its range in a job vacancy or before a job interview. Employees also have the right to request information from the employer on their individual pay level and on the average pay levels, broken down by sex, for categories of workers doing the same work or work of equal value. Besides this, there is a reporting obligation for larger companies. The Member States will need to implement the Directive into their national laws, regulations and administrative provisions within three years after its entry into force.
Given the geographical span of the guide and the wide variety in employment law rules, it is difficult to draw general conclusions that cover the whole world.
Analysis of the countries in scope showed that countries in all regions often recognize a number of similar concepts with respect to individual termination of employment contracts. In Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, a dismissal with reason is only possible when based on reasons stipulated by law. However, while in Ecuador no indemnities are due provided the employer complies with a very strict process with up-front government approval, in Colombia a severance indemnity is due, and in Brazil, both an indemnity in lieu of notice and a severance indemnity are due. Although the same principle applies, the interpretation and legal context can vary widely.
Many legal systems also reflect similar concepts such as summary dismissal for fault or serious reason, and protection against dismissal for certain categories of employees (e.g. maternity, sickness, political mandate, etc.).
There are also similarities when it comes to notice periods or severance payments.
In about 75% of the countries analyzed, employees are entitled to a notice period. In most of these countries, the notice period can be replaced by a one-off compensatory indemnity in lieu of notice (which generally equals the remuneration the employee would have received during the notice period), or a type of garden leave (which typically implies that the employee is not meant to work anymore, but will continue to stay in service and receive regular salary payments until the notice period expires). In a minority of the countries, the employee is required to work the notice period or for the employer to obtain the explicit consent of the employee to have it replaced by an indemnity in lieu, or a garden leave arrangement. In most of the countries, the length of the notice period is connected with the number of years served.
In general terms, a severance indemnity concerns a payment which the employer is obliged to make because it dismissed the employee, or because it is standard practice to negotiate with the individual on such a payment. Severance indemnities are, in general, not linked to any notice period. Its amount is often linked to the years of service of the employee within the company.
In the majority of the countries, specific rules kick in when, within a relatively short timeframe, several employees are dismissed. In these countries (70% of the countries in scope), it means that, once specific thresholds are exceeded, a specific procedure needs to be followed before proceeding with the dismissals (for example, an information and/or consultation procedure, or prior authorization by authorities). Please note that a social plan is generally negotiated in the framework of collective dismissal, and therefore the cost comparisons provided below do not apply.
More details on the collective dismissal thresholds can be found on the country-specific pages.
What are the different systems for individual dismissals?
When looking at the different regulations, we can, in general, distinguish a few different systems applicable in case of individual termination of the employment, as reflected in the pie chart below.