Working time in Hungary

Working time refers to the time your employee spends working for your company. In Hungary, working hours are limited to 40 hours a week. However, the distribution of those working hours might vary.

Regular working time

In Hungary, most people work Monday through Friday, 8 hours a day. The 8 hours are usually from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday are rest days for most of the population.

If you are operating a shop or a restaurant, working time will probably need to include evening hours or the weekends to cover your opening hours. In this case, working hours should still not exceed 40 hours a week.

Allocated cumulative working time

Depending on your business, you might prefer assigning working hours in a structure called “allocated cumulative working time”, or “working time banking”. In this structure, your employees work an average of 40 hours a week – but their working hours are not counted week by week, but in batches of 16 weeks. In total, 640 hours (16 weeks x 40 hours) are distributed over 16 weeks. This structure gives you and your employees more flexibility while ensuring their rights to sufficient rest time. You can read more about the allocated cumulative working time here.

Standby time

Your employees might be required to be on standby above their regular working hours. When they are on standby, they can be on any location they prefer, but must start working immediately when the employer calls. IT support professional, doctor, or flight attendant are some typical jobs that require employees to be on standby. You can read more about standby time here.

Working overtime

When your employees perform work above their regular working hours, you must pay them wage supplement for working overtime. The amount of wage supplement depends on a number of things. There are e.g. separate wage supplements for night work and weekend work. You can read more about overtime work in Hungary here.

Rest periods

To ensure the good health and full productivity of your employees, rest periods are also guaranteed by the Labor Code in Hungary. Apart from having regularly 2 rest days per week, your employees must be allowed to rest for at least 11 hours between the end of one day’s work and the start of work on the following day. They should also be granted at least 20 minutes in breaks for a workday of more than 6 hours, and an additional 25 minutes if the work day is longer than 9 hours. The number of days your employees can take for vacation are also governed by the labor law, but it is at least 20 days per year. You can read more about vacation days in Hungary here.

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