Last updated on January 16, 2024.

Public Holidays in Ethiopia for 2024

Public holidays are paid, and monthly-paid employees won’t see wage reductions for not working on these days. Employees working on public holidays earn double their hourly rate.

PTO

• Vacation/Annual Paid Leave

An employee is entitled to uninterrupted annual leave with pay which will not be less than:

– fourteen (14) working days for the first one year of service

– fourteen (14) working days plus one working day for every additional year of service.

Additional annual leave with pay, for employees engaged in particularly arduous work, or the condition in which it is done is unhealthy, may be fixed in a collective agreement.

For purposes of determining the qualifying period of service required for the entitlement of annual leave, 26 days of service in an undertaking will be deemed to be equivalent to one month of employment.

An employee will be granted his/her first period of leave after one year of service and his/her next and subsequent period of leave during each calendar year.

• Use-it-or-lose-it policy

Any leave postponed will not be postponed for more than two years.

• PTO payout at the termination

A worker whose contract of employment is terminated under this Proclamation is entitled to his/her pay for the leave he/she has not taken.

Maternity Leave

Ethiopia leave laws state that an employer is not allowed to terminate the contract of employment of a woman during her pregnancy and until four months of her confinement.

An employer is required to grant time off to a pregnant women employee without deducting her wages, for medical examination connected with her pregnancy, provided, however, that she is obliged to present a medical certificate of her examination.

A pregnant employee is, upon the recommendation of a medical doctor, entitled to leave with pay.

A woman employee is entitled to a period of 30 consecutive days of leave with pay preceding the presumed date of her confinement and a period of 60 consecutive days of leave after her confinement.

If she does not deliver within the 30 days of her prenatal leave she is entitled to an additional leave until her confinement. If delivery takes place before the 30 days period has elapsed, the post-natal leave will commence.

Sick Leave

Employee after having completed his probation, is rendered incapable of work due to sickness other than resulting from employment injury, will be entitled to sick leave.

The leave, in no case, will be more than six months counted consecutively or separately in the course of any 12-months period starting from the first day of his sickness.

Employees are required to notify the employer the day following his absence.

An employee is entitled to a sick leave upon presenting a valid medical certificate.

The period of sick leave is be granted in the following manner:

– the first one month with 100 percent of his wages

– the next two months with 50 percent of his wages

– the next three months without pay.

Jury Duty Leave and Voting Leave

Employees who exercise their civil rights or duties will be granted leave with pay, only for the time utilized for the said purpose.

Bereavement Leave

Employees are entitled to leave with pay for three working days when their spouse or descendants or ascendants or another relative, whether by affinity or consanguinity up to the second degree dies.

Military Leave

• Not specified by law.

Please consult your local legal counsel to learn more about Ethiopia Leave Laws.

To learn more about laws in various countries, check out our Leave Laws page.