UK company hiring in Albania: what British employers need to know

Most of the structure of Albanian employment law will feel recognisable to someone who manages staff in the UK. There is a written contract, a probation period, notice that grows with service, a holiday minimum, sick pay and a route to court for unfair dismissal. The Albanian Labour Code (Kodi i Punës, Law 7961/1995 as amended) sets all of these out, and an employee cannot sign away rights it grants.

The detail is where British assumptions slip. Holiday is counted in working days, with public holidays added on top rather than folded in. Probation is capped at 3 months and either side can leave on 5 days’ notice during it. A dismissal must follow a written procedure with fixed time gaps, and getting the procedure wrong costs 2 months’ pay even when the reason itself was sound.

Contracts need more content than many UK offer letters carry. Article 21 lists the minimum: the parties, place of work, job description, start date, the term if the contract is fixed, paid leave, notice period, pay elements and pay date, normal weekly hours, any collective agreement, probation and disciplinary procedures. A template drafted for England and Wales will not cover that list, so plan to start from an Albanian contract instead.

Working time is tighter than under a UK opt-out culture. The normal week is capped at 40 hours and the normal day at 8. Annual overtime tops out at 200 hours. None may be worked in a week that already totals 48 working hours, and each extra hour earns a premium of at least 25%, rising to 50% when the overtime falls on the weekly rest day or a festive date. Evening work between 19:00 and 22:00 carries at least a 20% premium and night work from 22:00 to 06:00 at least 50%. A Tirana support desk working ordinary UK office hours rarely triggers these premiums, because the two working days line up closely. A team asked to cover British evenings will, and the payroll needs to reflect it from the first month.

Fixed-term contracts are another difference. An open-ended contract is what the law assumes; to set an end date, the employer has to show an objective reason rooted in work that is temporary by nature. If the employee simply carries on working after the end date, the contract becomes indefinite.

Salaries are paid monthly, at the end of the month, through a bank and in lek unless otherwise agreed. The employer must issue a payslip, and late pay attracts interest of at least 10% a year. Each month’s income tax and contributions are reported on the listëpagesa (monthly payroll list) with the General Directorate of Taxes (DPT), with filing and payment due on the 20th for the month before.

Contributions in 2026 are 15% employer and 9.5% employee for social insurance, on pay between a floor of ALL 50,000 and a cap of ALL 186,416 a month, plus 1.7% each for health insurance on the whole wage. Income tax runs at 13% and then 23%, with a basic deduction that leaves the minimum wage untaxed.

A mid-level example helps a UK budget holder calibrate. Take a gross monthly salary of ALL 80,000, roughly €870 when converted at ALL 91.98 per euro:

• Employer contributions at 16.7% add ALL 13,360, for a monthly cost of ALL 93,360 (about €1,015)
• The employee pays ALL 8,960 in contributions and ALL 6,500 in income tax
• Take-home pay is ALL 64,540, about €702

No GBP figure appears in an Albanian contract, and your accounts will carry the currency movement each month. For a senior hire, the costing in what a senior developer in Tirana costs shows how the social insurance cap pulls the employer on-cost below 16.7%.

The floor for paid annual leave (pushime vjetore të paguara) is 22 working days in each year of service. That figure replaced the old “four calendar weeks” wording in 2024, when Law 91/2024 also scrapped the rule that leave had to be taken in blocks of at least a week. Public holidays come on top, and in 2026 the Bank of Albania calendar lists 15 holiday dates, with a substitute day off when one lands on a rest day.

Holiday is meant for the year it belongs to, with a three-month grace period: anything unused has to be taken before April comes round. There is no payment in lieu while employment continues, only on termination, so a UK habit of buying back unused days at year end does not transfer.

Sick pay is split between employer and state. For the opening fortnight of illness the employer owes no less than 80% of normal wages, provided there is a medical certificate. Once the illness reaches day 15, the benefit comes from ISSH, the Social Insurance Institute, at a rate of 70% or 80% of the average daily net base, depending on whether the person has more than 10 years of insurance. The certified period can run to 6 months in total.

Maternity is longer than many British employers expect. Work is prohibited for 35 days before and 63 days after the birth, and ISSH pays maternity benefit for up to 365 calendar days to mothers with 12 months of contributions: 80% of the average daily net base before the birth and for 150 days after it, then 50%. The details are on the ISSH maternity page. A mother who returns after 63 days keeps 2 paid hours a day for feeding until the child turns one, and each parent is entitled to a minimum of 4 months’ unpaid parental leave, usable until the child turns 6.

Smaller entitlements add up too. Paid absence for the necessary care of dependent children runs to 12 days annually, and parents of children under 3 get up to 15 paid days when the child is ill, backed by a medical certificate. Time off for legal duties such as court attendance is paid for up to 14 working days.

Dismissal after probation needs a reason linked to capability, conduct or the needs of the business, and a procedure the employer can prove it followed. The burden of proof sits with the employer.

• Send a written invitation to a meeting at least 72 hours in advance
• At the meeting, explain the reasons and hear the employee’s side
• Issue the written dismissal no sooner than two days and no later than a week after the meeting, stating the reasons
• Give notice that scales with service: 2 weeks for the first 6 months, then 1 month until the second anniversary, 2 months until the fifth, and 3 months after that
• Allow at least 20 paid hours a week for job hunting while your notice runs
• Pay seniority compensation (shpërblim për vjetërsi) of at least 15 days’ pay per full year if service reached 3 years

Notice is suspended by illness, pregnancy and leave the employer has granted, and nobody may be dismissed while on paid incapacity or on leave. A claim for unjustified dismissal must be lodged within 180 days, counted from when the notice period ends, and a court can award up to a year’s pay plus notice pay. A procedural failure adds 2 months’ pay on top.

Larger restructures bring a collective process: within 90 days, 10 or more dismissals in a firm of up to 100 staff trigger written notice and at least 30 days of consultation. The fuller picture is in severance in Albania.

A British national who will work for an Albanian employer needs the employee version of the unique permit (leje unike), which combines residence and the right to work. The free online Registration Certificate introduced in April 2026 is for EU citizens, so it does not help someone travelling on a UK passport.

The employer’s first step is an employment approval from AKPA, Albania’s National Agency for Employment and Skills. The application itself is made on e-Albania with the employment contract, proof of accommodation, a passport and a photo. Fees run from ALL 8,000 for a permit of up to a year to ALL 10,000 for up to three. The 2026 rules also brought a faster interim step, a provisional permit in hand one working day after the application that covers the wait for a decision, and the biometric card follows within 30 days.

Tax follows presence. Spending 183 days or more in Albania in a calendar year, or having the centre of vital interests there, makes the person resident and taxable on worldwide income. Someone keeping a home and family in the UK while working a long stint in Tirana should get advice on both sides before the move.

A UK business has two practical ways to become an employer in Albania. It can register its own SHPK with the National Business Centre (QKB) through e-Albania, open a bank account and build payroll and accounting around it. Or it can have an employer of record hold the Albanian contract and run payroll while the UK team manages the work. The criteria for picking a provider are listed in the EOR checklist for Albania.

Whichever route you take, the sequence from offer to first salary is much the same. The hire must be declared to the tax authority at least one day before the start date, the contract signed within 7 days of starting if it was not signed earlier, and the first listëpagesa goes in on the 20th following that first payday. A step-by-step view is in EOR onboarding in Albania.

Two things save trouble later. Put your IP assignment and confidentiality terms in the signed contract from day one. And agree in writing whether the role is remote, hybrid or office-based, since telework terms under Article 15 belong in the contract.

If you would rather not run Albanian payroll yourself, Employer of Record Albania can hold the contract and pay the team each month.

Q01How much holiday does an Albanian employee get?+

A.The statutory minimum is 22 paid working days annually, and public holidays are added to that. In 2026 there are 15 public holiday dates, with substitute days when one falls on a rest day.

Q02Is there anything like redundancy pay in Albania?+

A.Yes. Albanian law calls it seniority pay. A worker your company lets go after 3 or more years is owed a minimum of 15 days’ pay multiplied by the years completed, and loses it only through summary dismissal for justified cause.

Q03Can a UK business run Albanian payroll from its own systems?+

A.Only as a registered Albanian employer filing the listëpagesa with the tax authority each month. Without an Albanian company, an employer of record usually holds the contract and runs payroll.

Q04Does a British citizen need a permit to work in Albania?+

A.Yes, to work for an Albanian employer they need the employee unique permit. The Registration Certificate for long stays is only for EU citizens.

Q05How long does a dismissed worker in Albania have to go to court?+

A.180 days from the end of the notice period, or from the termination date for an immediate dismissal.