The New Hungarian Labour Code – a Practical Guide on Privacy Related Changes

Post published:2012/01/07
Post category:Hungary

The new Hungarian Labour Code has been very recently published in the Official Gazette. The Act No I. of 2012 is scheduled to enter into force by 1 July 2012 and it will lay down, inter alia, the general rules governing workplace privacy. We have provided a general overview of the privacy related provisions of the new Act in our earlier post.

From data protection aspects, the new legislation requires the implementation of the following changes by local employers:

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UPDATED – Workplace Privacy in the Bill on the New Hungarian Labour Code

Post published:2011/11/13
Post category:Hungary

The Hungarian Government has very recently submitted to the Parliament the draft bill on the new Labour Code (the ‘Bill’) which is currently under general debate in the plenum.

As regards the current legal situation in Hungary, we already posted a summary on the general conditions for the processing of employee data, where we have concluded that the effective Labour Code secures only the minimum protection to worker’s privacy as the legislation in force currently does not regulate the data protection aspects of employment. Accordingly, the conditions and limitations of monitoring, such as the use of CCTV, the control of employee’s e-mail and internet usage have not been defined which caused legal uncertainty both to employers as well as to employees. Considering that only very little court practice is available in workplace privacy issues in Hungary, the case law of the Data Protection Commissioner is of particular importance. The Commissioner articulated in its opinions that the Labour Code does not provide a legal basis for the use of monitoring measures and certain practices – such as the use of covert monitoring, use of spy programs or monitoring of dressing rooms – could not be legitimized even if the consent of the employee has been granted hereto.

In contrast to the current legislation in force, it seems that the new Labour Code will introduce significant changes in the regulation of workplace privacy.

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General Conditions for the Processing of Employee Data

Post published:2010/12/02
Post category:Hungary

Under Hungarian laws, the processing of employee personal data is subject to the special conditions and limitations of the Labour Code due to the likely subordinated position of employees within the context of employment. According to the case law of the Data Protection Commissioner, data quality requirements of the Data Protection Act must be interpreted in the light of the provisions of the Labour Code having cumulative effect with respect to the protection provided for workers under general data protection laws harmonised by the European Data Protection Directive. According to the prevailing opinion, the provisions of the Hungarian Labour Code are specific in relation to the general rules of the Data Protection Act. However, it causes several ambiguities in practice that the Hungarian Labour Code does not have any provisions specifically dealing with data protection issues within the context of employment. (tovább…)