Hiring in Lebanon: the work permit, residence and the contract, step by step

Move someone who is already in Lebanon

A worker holding a work permit may not move to another employer, or change the work they do, without the Ministry of Labour's approval first.

At General Security, the move needs a waiver from the current employer and an undertaking from the new one. Made before a notary, they are lodged within 15 days of being made. They can instead be signed at a General Security centre, with both employers and the worker there. The worker signs the waiver too. The waiver takes effect only once General Security has carried it out.

Check the role is open to a non-Lebanese national

Lebanese workers come first. Each year, the Minister of Labour lists the work reserved for Lebanese nationals.

The current list reserves all commercial work, and all work in banking, finance, accounting and insurance. It reserves administrative roles of every kind, from chairman and director to accountant, secretary and commercial representative. It also reserves work in the health sector, and teaching below university level other than foreign languages where needed. In general, it reserves any work Lebanese workers are available to do.

Professions regulated by law, such as law, engineering, medicine and pharmacy, are on the list too. Palestinian refugees born in Lebanon and officially registered there, and a foreign national whose mother or wife is Lebanese, are exempt from the list.

A work permit can be cancelled if the employer dismisses a Lebanese worker and keeps a foreign one doing equivalent work.

Set the contract up right

A contract of employment may be written or spoken. A written contract is in Arabic. It may be translated where the employer or the employee is a foreign national who does not read Arabic. Bringing a foreign national in needs a contract certified by a notary.

A trial period lasts up to three months. During it, either side may end the contract without notice or compensation.

A fixed-term contract renewed for at least two years is treated as open-ended when severance is worked out. A seasonal contract runs for up to six months, and counts as fixed-term.

Part-time and remote work are covered by the Labour Code. Part-time and remote staff have the rights of comparable full-time staff, in proportion to their hours.

Know the employee test before you engage a contractor

Lebanon's Labour Code treats as an employee anyone who works for an employer for a wage, under the employer's supervision and control, wherever the work is done.

That holds full-time, part-time or seasonal, in person or remotely, and even when the person uses their own equipment.

A foreign national may work in Lebanon, paid or unpaid, only with the Ministry of Labour's prior approval and a work permit.

A role that needs a work permit goes through employer of record.

Know the leave your people are entitled to

Once sick leave passes a month in the year, the employer may cut that year's annual leave to eight days. No one can be given notice during annual leave, sick leave or maternity leave, or while pregnant.

End employment on the law's terms

Notice rises with length of service: a month up to three years, two months from three to six, three months from six to twelve, and four months after twelve. It is given in writing.

A dismissal ruled arbitrary costs two to twelve months' wages, set by the Labour Arbitration Council.

End of service is paid through the NSSF's end-of-service branch. A law replacing it with a pension has been passed. The branch carries on until the decrees that put the pension in place are issued. The employer declares the leaver to the NSSF within 15 days.

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