What employment documents does your company need in Hungary?

• Regulation and documentation
• Mandatory employment documents in Hungary
• Additional documents as appropriate
• Get help with employment related documents in Hungary
• FAQ

Regulation and documentation

When you hire an employee in Hungary, the labor contract is not the only employment document you will need. Employees need to be provided information on their rights and obligations, but many aspects of the employment relationship are governed by the Labor Code and do not need to be spelled out; your company does not need a separate policy for everything simply because it is regulated.

As a result, the greatest benefit of working with an HR professional is receiving guidance on what kind of employment documents you need to ensure compliance with regulations without overwhelming your administrative system and personnel.

Mandatory employment documents in Hungary

For a typical employment relationship, Hungarian employers need to ensure that the required employment information, occupational safety, and data protection documentation are in place. These include the following:

• Written labor contract
• Written employer information (listing relevant sections of the labor code such as when are salaries paid or how PTO is calculated)
• Written job description (with a list of tasks and duties)
• Records of the employee’s working time
• Occupational health and safety documentation
• Information on employee data protection

Additional documents as appropriate

Additional documents may become necessary depending on the employee’s working arrangements (typical working hours, remote work), regular and fringe benefits, workplace risks, and other circumstances. Below we have highlighted a few typical employment documents you might find relevant.

Documenting working time and overtime

While keeping records of the working time of each employee is a must (unless the employee is an executive), you might occasionally need your employees to do overtime, be on standby, do work in shifts or on holidays. If that is reasonable to expect in your normal operation, you need to have a transparent policy in place before the first overtime or standby etc. is ever ordered.

Working time banking

Working time banking is a system for allocated cumulative working time, and it is a special case of working time allocation, which needs special documentation. In a nutshell, it means that over a span of up to 4 months, the corresponding working hours can be allocated any way (while obviously respecting mandatory rest periods). Of course, relevant rules need to be clearly documented and communicated.

Remote work and home office

If employees work remotely, the employment arrangement needs to be documented appropriately. Depending on the exact arrangement, this may require provisions in the employment contract or other employment documentation addressing remote work. In Hungary, there is a difference between regular home office and telework, with different options and obligations for both the employer and the employee, so the distinction is important already when you are mapping your needs for a new position.

Occupational medical fitness

It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that employees are fit to work before they start working for the company and that they remain fit throughout their employment. This is easiest ensured through recurring medical checkups, which require appropriate documentation. Some professions require checkups more often, or they require checkups on specific areas, so there is no universal workflow (or paperwork) that fits every business.

Personal protective equipment and safety trainings

If the work requires personal protective equipment (PPE), the employer needs to provide the equipment as well as appropriate training. Specific occupational safety training may also be required depending on the job and the workplace – on top of regular work safety and fire trainings. All this must be documented.

Monitoring employees

Employees need to be informed about all kinds of monitoring including CCTV and access-control systems, and about how the information collected about them is stored and processed. The documentation should reflect the actual monitoring practices of the company rather than relying on a generic policy that does not match reality.

Benefits, bonuses, fringe benefits

If employees receive any kind of compensation above their regular salaries, that should be properly documented. Some typical examples of these include:

• bonus or incentive agreements
• fringe benefit plans and individual documentation
• company car documentation
• working time related agreements
• terms and conditions regarding other benefits

Of course, these are not mandatory for every Hungarian business. If your Hungarian company does not offer fringe benefits, you will not need a fringe benefit strategy. However, once a type of compensation becomes relevant, it will need to be documented.

Collective agreements

If there is a union representing the interests of employees, the union can make a collective agreement with the employer that will cover every employee. However, this is not relevant for most small or medium-sized businesses in Hungary.

Get help with employment related documents in Hungary

For a company hiring its first employees in Hungary, the greatest challenge is understanding which documents are mandatory, recommended, or optional. At Helpers, not only we have templates for the core employment documents as well as other HR related documents Hungarian employers might commonly need, but we can also tell you when you will need which, and then help you adapt them to your circumstances and even your existing global documents.

With our help, your Hungarian employment documents will match your global policies while also complying with Hungarian law, which can be particularly useful for international companies entering the Hungarian market.

The post What employment documents does your company need in Hungary? appeared first on Helpers Hungary.