How do we interpret the detailed rules of subsidy for part-time employment in Hungary?

As we wrote earlier, state subsidy may be claimed if a company reduces the working hours and this measurement is closely and directly related to the emergency.

Even after the interpretation of the government decree and the guideline published on the website of the National Employment Service, we and our clients had still several questions. Hereby we have collected the answers after consultation with the Employment Department of the Government Office of the Capital City of Budapest.

1. Is thirty percent salary prorated for the time lost due to reduced working hours payable for the individual development time in all cases?

Based on our understanding the answer is no, which was also confirmed by the government office.

In case of companies where the monthly base salary / absence fee of the employees on the 11. of March, 2020 exceeded twice the minimum wage, additionally to the pro-rated salary for the individual development time the employer must complete the employee’s wage so that the salary together with the subsidy reaches the absence fee defined by the government order.

For better understanding, let’s see an example:

Monthly absence fee of the employee (calculated on the 11. of March): gross 500,000 HUF

The employer applies a 50% reduction in working hours, so for 4 hours work per day HUF 250,000 gross is payable for the employee.

The employer can claim net 75,000 HUF subsidy for part-time employment, which equals to gross 112,700 HUF.

For the individual development time the employer must pay additionally to the prorated salary for 1,2 hours per day (gross 75,000 HUF) also the difference in order to ensure that the employee receives the absence fee before the decrease of the working time (gross 500,000 HUF), which means that gross 137,300 HUF will be payable for this time.

To summarize: in this case the employer must pay a gross salary of 387,300 HUF for the 4 hours of work and for additional 1.2 hours individual development time per day.

2. The decrease of contributions introduced regarding the coronavirus is considered to be a job-retention allowance, ie. the employer is not entitled to the reduced working time subsidy in addition to this allowance?

The answer is no, contribution allowance can be applied also in case of claiming the subsidy for part-time employment.

3. Can we claim the subsidy also in case the employee is working from home?

It has been published in several channels that the subsidy cannot be applied for employees working in a “home office”, they must work at the regular workplace anyway.

The Government Office confirmed our understanding that there is no limitation in the regulation related to the workplace, so it can be applied for home office workers as well.

4. Is unequal scheduling of working hours prohibited during the subsidy period?

One of the conditions of applying for the subsidy is that the employer must close the working time frame period, however the regulation doesn’t contain any prohibition related to the unequal scheduling of the working hours. So, it can happen during the subsidy period that the employee does not work the reduced working hours equally each working day, but in “blocks”, i.e. the 20 hours working time is scheduled for 2 or 3 days of the week (in case of a work time reduced to 4 hours per day).

We hope that the above information will help you decide if this subsidy may be interesting to you. Based on the news from last week, further modifications are expected in the regulations. We will inform you on every change coming into effect. Follow us, sign up for our newsletter!

Contact:

Rafał Nadolny
MD Poland,
Partner

Daniela Zsigmond
MD Romania,
Partner

Tamás Kovács
MD Hungary,
Partner


Related content