Regular health checkups at the Hungarian workplace
Are you an employer? Scroll down!
Are you or will you be an employee? Read on!
Your good health is important. Before you start working for a Hungarian company, you are supposed to go see a doctor indicated by your future employer and get a certificate that you are fit to work. Once you start working, the procedure should be repeated regularly (this usually means every year, but it will depend on the type of job you do).
Regular health checkups should be organized by your employer, and they are often held at your workplace. If you are expected to visit a doctor’s office for this purpose, you can do this during working hours and you will be exempt from work for this duration (you should not be expected to do overtime to compensate for the time you went to see the doctor).
You can read more here about what to expect at a health checkup. To sum it up: the checkup is not invasive and your results remain confidential. Your employer will only receive a report stating whether you are fit to work.
Are you an employer? Read on!
As an employer, it is your responsibility that your employees are fit to work before they start working for you and that they maintain their health throughout their employment. This is normally done by contracting a healthcare provider and organizing regular health checkups with them for your employees. The frequency of required health checkups depends on the type of work your employees do for your Hungarian company.
Health checkups should be organized at your premises during working hours. If an employee cannot attend, e.g. because they are on holiday, they should be able to visit the same doctor’s office on their own. The time spent at the doctor is part of the job, so you cannot expect them to do overtime to compensate for the time spent on the health checkup.
Please note: as a result of the health checkup, you will only receive a report that states if your employees are fit to work or not. You are not expected to manage your employees’ health related data, as they remain confidential.
Are regular health checkups really mandatory for everyone?
In 2024, a new decree was issued allowing employers to forgo regular health checkups for low-risk jobs, such as office jobs. However, fitness to work remains the responsibility of employers. In case there is a problem and you as an employer need to prove that the health of your employee has been maintained throughout the employment relationship, you will be able to do that only if there are regular reports of this – which can be achieved by organizing regular health checkups.
In line with the above, while regular health checkups are not mandatory anymore for some jobs, they remain essential for compliance with the Labor Code. As a result, it is best practice to continue organizing them.
At the same time, health checkups remain mandatory for everyone before starting a new job, and regularly in case the following risks are involved in the job:
- Increased risk of accidents
- Physically demanding temperatures
- Noise
- Ionizing radiation
- Artificial optical radiation
- Vibrations
- Chemical risks
- Epidemiological risks
- Dust or asbestos
- Biological risks
- Night shifts
- Manual handling of loads above 10kg
You can read an explanation of what these risks entail, complete with examples, here.
HSE at your Hungarian company
Health is essential both for the well-being of your employee and for the productivity of your Hungarian company. As a result, regular health checkups are essential for the maintenance of both.
As part of our HR compliance services, we offer not only payroll administration and help with employment related paperwork, but also assistance with organizing health checkups for employees in line with the Labor Code. The Helpers Team has 20 years of experience supporting foreigners living, working, and doing business in Hungary, and we would be happy to help you achieve your business goals.
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The post Regular health checkups at the Hungarian workplace appeared first on Helpers Hungary.
