Background information

Under government decree 468/2022, the government adopted measures to assist the tourism-catering industry as they suffer from the impacts of the war in Ukraine and rising energy prices. The government also adopted the Tourism Action Plan to roll out ideas for helping the ailing sectors. The plan includes easing administrative burdens and encouraging the use of the employee bonus SZÉP card, where amounts transferred by employers can be spent on accommodation, food and recreation (See case Employee bonus scheme SZÉP card limit rise

Content of measure

Under the measures, the 24-month working time banking period can be arranged one-sidedly by the employer without a signed collective agreement (or if the collective agreement specifies a shorter period, the employer may overrule that). The legislation affects the following sectors: hotels and similar accommodation; holiday and other short-stay accommodation; camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks; other accommodation; restaurants and mobile food service activities; event catering activities; beverage serving activities; other amusement and recreation activities and physical well-being activities.

For everyone else, the rules of the Labour Code, Section 94 apply: the working time banking period can only be raised to 36 months by collective agreement (otherwise only to 6 months). As part of the legislation, companies in the tourism-catering industry are exempt from tourism development tax (4% of revenues) from 1 October 2022 until 31 March 2023.

Use of measure

The total number of companies operating in the targeted sectors in 2021 (latest data) is as follows: 5,549 in hotels and accommodation, 24,109 in restaurants and beverage serving, 10,700 in other specified services. Altogether around 40,358 companies were exempt from the tourism tax in the six months that this measure was in place.

The targeted sectors had 88,848 employees in December 2022, which makes up nearly 3% of the overall workforce, according to the payroll statistics. These employees are now exposed to the possibility of the employer unilaterally imposing a 24-month working time banking arrangement on them. It is unknown how many companies are taking advantage of this possibility.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Applies to all workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Company / Companies	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	No involvement
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

Unknown.

Views and reactions

The Hungarian Association of Spas (Magyar Fürdőszövetség) welcomed the measures, but said they are not going far enough. 71% of guest nights spent in Hungary are in a town where there is a spa, so preventing spas from having to close is important, the Association said. They added that such closures could have a domino effect on related sectors. Spas do not benefit from the 4% tourism tax relief, as they pay 27% VAT and SZÉP card costs do not grow when people cut recreational spending. The Association proposed to lower the VAT to 9% for spa services (for tourism) and to set up a wage support measure is adopted to compensate for high energy costs.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 17 November 2022: Why were spas left out of the tourism helping measures? (spabook.net)
• 22 November 2022: Govt decree 468/2022 on measures assisting tourism-catering (njt.hu)
• 22 November 2023: Govt decree 515/2023 on the state of war danger (njt.hu)