Hungary
Key Facts
| Population | 9,932,000 |
|---|---|
| Collective Bargaining Coverage | 33% |
| Proportion of Employees in Unions | 12% |
| Principal Level of Collective Bargaining |
company |
| Workplace Representation |
union and works council |
| Board-level Representation |
yes: state-owned and private companies |
| Company Board Structure |
dualistic or monistic (only public limited companies can choose a monistic structure) |
Sources: see individual country sections; where a range of figures has been quoted, the lower number has been taken
Collective Bargaining
Collective bargaining covers around a fifth of all employees and takes place primarily at company/organisation level, despite considerable efforts by both unions and previous governments to encourage industry level bargaining. The tripartite discussions on the minimum wage continue to be important to the unions, although they are no longer binding on the government.
more ...Workplace Representation
Workplace representation in Hungary is provided by both local trade unions and elected works councils with the balance between the two varying over time. Under the revised Labour Code, introduced in 2012, unions retained negotiating rights but lost their monitoring powers and their right to be informed and consulted. Works councils have information and consultation rights but in practice often find it difficult to influence company decisions.
more ...Board-level Representation
Employee representatives make up one third of the members of the supervisory board in companies with more than 200 employees. But new legislation, passed in 2006, allowed single tier boards for the first time, and here employee rights are much weaker.
more ...European-level Representation
European representatives from Hungary for both European Works Councils and the European Company are chosen by the works council, or central works council, if there is one. Only the appointment of board members to a European Company is different – they are chosen by the SE representative body.
more ...Health and Safety Representation
Elected health and safety representatives are the main way that the interests of employees are represented in the area of health and safety in Hungary. However, in larger employers there is also a joint health and safety committee, made up of representatives of both sides.
more ...Financial Participation
Employee participation, in the form of employee ownership, profit-sharing and cooperatives, has a long history in Hungary. The most important form is employee ownership, which enjoyed much support in the early years of privatization through the Hungarian Employee Share Ownership Programme. Despite the support in the early years, the relative weight of this ownership form decreased rapidly in recent years and is now quite insignificant.
more ...