Working hours, leave and employment law in Hungary

Hungarian employment is governed by a single, detailed statute, the Labour Code of 2012, and it sets clear rules on working time, leave, and termination that foreign employers need to follow exactly. The standard week is 40 hours. Annual leave starts at 20 days and rises with age. Overtime is capped and must be paid at a premium. Termination requires written notice with a stated reason. None of it is optional, and the procedural detail is where employers without local knowledge come unstuck.

This guide sets out the rules that matter most for employing in Hungary in 2026. For how the employment relationship is set up in the first place, see our guide to hiring in Hungary with an Employer of Record, and for the financial side, our tax guide for Hungary.

The standard working week in Hungary is 40 hours, typically 8 hours a day across five days. Working time is measured from the start to the end of the prescribed work period and includes preparatory and finishing tasks the employee must perform regularly, though it excludes the daily commute.

Maximum working time, including overtime, cannot exceed an average of 48 hours per week. The Labour Code allows flexible and averaged scheduling, where hours and rest periods are balanced over a reference period of several weeks or months rather than measured day by day, which is common in shift-based sectors such as healthcare, transport, and energy.

Overtime in Hungary is tightly capped. An employer can order up to 250 hours of overtime per calendar year for a full-time employee. A collective agreement can raise that to 300 hours, and the employee and employer can separately agree a further amount of voluntarily undertaken overtime, bringing the annual maximum to 400 hours.

Overtime must be compensated. Work on a regular working day attracts a supplement of at least 50% of the base wage, or time off in lieu. Work on a weekly rest day or a public holiday attracts a 100% supplement, or a 50% supplement plus a rest day. The Labour Code also sets supplements for Sunday work at 50%, night work at 15%, and frequently changing shift work at 30%. Some allowances can be folded into the base salary as a lump sum if the contract says so, but overtime pay cannot.

Every employee is entitled to a base of 20 working days of paid annual leave per calendar year. On top of the base, extra leave accrues with the employee’s age, from 1 day up to 10 additional days for older workers, so a long-serving employee approaching retirement accrues meaningfully more than a new graduate.

Further extra days apply in specific personal circumstances, such as for parents of young children. During leave the employee receives an absence fee based on their basic salary and regular allowances. The full age-based schedule sits in our country guide to leave in Hungary.

Employees are entitled to 15 working days of sick leave per calendar year, during which the employer pays 70% of salary, supported by a doctor’s certificate of incapacity. Beyond that period, state sickness benefit takes over under the social insurance system.

Family leave is generous. Mothers are entitled to 24 weeks of maternity leave and can take up to three years off in total with state benefits. For the first six months, the Pregnancy and Confinement Benefit, known as CSED, pays 70% of salary through the National Health Insurance Fund. These entitlements interact with the family tax allowances covered in our tax guide and materially affect how a Hungarian hire is administered.

Probation is permitted in Hungary and is commonly set at the start of an indefinite contract. The employment contract must be in writing and must state at least the salary and the job role, or the agreement is invalid.

Termination of an indefinite contract can happen by mutual agreement or by notice, and notice by either party requires a written document. Employer notice must state a clear and lawful reason. The statutory notice period starts at 30 days and increases with the employee’s length of service, and a collective agreement can extend it. Severance pay is tied to length of service and becomes payable on employer-initiated termination once the employee passes the qualifying threshold of service.

Hungarian courts hold employers to the procedural detail. Statutory severance cannot be conditioned on the employee signing away their claims, and a flawed termination can lead to disputes and reinstatement orders. This is the part of Hungarian employment law where foreign employers most often need specialist guidance, and our guide to employee rights in Hungary covers the protections in detail.

The rules above are not unusually harsh by EU standards, but they are precise and procedurally demanding. Age-based leave accrual, the layered overtime caps, and the requirement for a written and reasoned termination are all easy to get wrong from outside the country. The cost of getting them wrong lands on the employer.

Employing through an Employer of Record removes that exposure. The provider is the legal employer, applies the Labour Code correctly, calculates the right leave and overtime, and handles termination to the statutory standard. For most companies hiring a small team in Hungary, that is the cleanest way to stay compliant without building in-country HR expertise.