Tuesday, 10 November 2026
Hungary is introducing changes to employment regulations affecting electricity businesses and companies employing highly skilled workers from outside the European Union. The measures include revised salary requirements for EU Blue Card holders, wider application of an electricity-sector collective agreement and proposed changes to the December 2026 working calendar.
From 2027, the standard minimum monthly salary for employees working under an EU Blue Card will be HUF 1,091,244, approximately €3,004. A lower threshold of HUF 872,995, approximately €2,403, will apply to specified healthcare occupations. The revised requirements will cover existing employment relationships as well as new appointments, requiring affected employers to review salaries before the new thresholds take effect.
The changes are relevant to companies recruiting specialist personnel from outside the EU, including businesses operating in engineering, technology and other sectors requiring highly qualified employees. Employers will need to ensure that remuneration meets the applicable threshold, although the rules do not establish a general minimum salary for all foreign workers.
Separately, Hungary has extended the Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Electric Power Industry to employers whose principal activities involve electricity generation, transmission, distribution, trading or storage. The extension applies regardless of whether individual businesses belong to the employers’ association that originally concluded the agreement.
The agreement establishes employment conditions covering working hours, overtime, notice periods and employee benefits. Depending on length of service, notice periods range from 45 to 120 days, while severance payments range from three to twelve months of average salary. Annual overtime is limited to 300 hours.
Additional provisions include a thirteenth-month salary, supplementary payments for night work and public holiday overtime, enhanced sick pay and employer pension contributions. The agreement specifies a 20% supplement for night work, a 225% supplement for overtime on public holidays and pension contributions of at least 4.5% of gross salary.
For energy infrastructure businesses, the extension may affect staffing expenditure and employment arrangements at existing facilities and new projects. Companies developing or operating renewable energy installations and electricity storage facilities may fall within its scope where electricity-related activities constitute their principal business. The financial impact will depend on existing employment terms and the extent to which they already meet the agreement’s requirements.
Hungary is also preparing changes to its public holiday calendar. Parliament adopted legislation on 3 November proposing to make 24 December a public holiday, while a related decree would remove the requirement to work on Saturday, 12 December 2026. According to legal analysis published by CMS on 6 November, the measures had not yet been promulgated at that date. Employers therefore need to distinguish between the adopted proposals and provisions that have formally entered into force when preparing year-end working schedules.
Source: CMS
