Triggering intense emotions and protests, the bill related to
the amendment of the Hungarian Labour Code has been accepted by the
Parliament on 12 December 2018 and entered into effect after the
signing by the President of the Republic as of 1 January 2019
("Amendment").
In the following we summarize the most furiously and frequently
contested parts of the Amendment.
Introduction of the "voluntarily undertaken extraordinary
work"
According to the previous regulation the upper limit of
extraordinary working time (in case of full time employees) was 250
hours a year. In case of a collective bargaining agreement
("CBA") this could be increased up to 300 hours. Based on
the Amendment, the mandatory upper limit (i.e. 250 hours) can be
increased up to 400 hours per calendar year as follows:
