Länderübersicht



Employees are represented on the boards of Hungarian companies with more than 200 employees. Both unions and employers were consulted on how the directive was to be implemented in Hungary and the unions expressed concern on the role they had been given. However, this did not lead to a wider public debate.

Employee representatives make up one third of the members of the supervisory board in companies with more than 200 employees.

The bill transposing the directive was presented to the National Reconciliation Council (OÉT), in which unions, employers and the government were represented, in February 2004 before being debated in parliament. It was discussed in both plenary and committee sessions and some minor changes were made as a result. However, the unions were unable to change the way that the selection of Hungarian members of both the SNB and the SE representative body was left in the hands of the works councils, rather than the unions, as this followed the arrangements already agreed for European works councils (see section on the position of unions and employers).

The implementation of the directive, where the government took an essentially minimalist approach, (see László Neumann September 2004) did not lead to a wider public debate. There have been, however, subsequent changes to the system of employee representation at board level, which represents a potential weakening of the employees’ position.

Special negotiating body (SNB)

Standard rules under the fallback procedure

Misuse of procedures and structural change