On June 18, 2026, the Administrative Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal against a decision by the Administrative Court, which had rejected a claim by a group of appealing Fire Department officers seeking compensation for the period during which they were on standby duty from 2006 until July 29, 2015. During the period in question, the Fire Service was under the jurisdiction of the Cyprus Police.

In its decision, the Court of Appeals, citing case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union, ruled that the EU Directive concerning the organization of working time —which the appellants invoked—does not regulate the issue of employees’ remuneration. Consequently, the appellants’ claim does not fall within the scope of EU law. The Court of Appeals, accepting the position of the Legal Service of the Republic, ruled that the appellants’ claim for compensation for the time they spent on standby duty falls within the competence of the Member States and, therefore, it was within the competence of the Police to rule on the relevant request.            

Since it determined that this matter should be examined at the national level, the the Court of Appeals assessed whether the Police had sufficiently justified its decision to reject the appellants’ request. The Court of Appeals ruled that the Police’s decision was duly justified.

As stated in the decision, the institution of on-call duty has not been legally established, and no compensation is provided for time spent on call. This fact cannot lead to the appellants’ claim being granted, since, as the Court of Appeals noted, the absence of a legislative provision cannot be remedied by a court decision.

On behalf of the Attorney General of the Republic, the case was handled by Ms. Irini Neophytou, Senior Counsel for the Republic, and Mr. Thassos Hatziloukas, Attorney of the Republic.