Hungary: Hungarian Constitutional Court Strikes Down Labour Code Provision That Left Medically Unfit Employees Without Protection
The Hungarian Constitutional Court has annulled a 2023 amendment to the Labour Code that allowed employers to keep employees on the payroll while refusing to assign them work, pay wages, or offer alternative roles if those employees had been declared medically unfit for their original position.
The annulled provision created a legal vacuum: the employment relationship remained formally intact, yet the employer bore no obligation to pay the employee or provide suitable alternative work. Crucially, unlike employees on certified sick leave (who receive social security benefits), medically unfit employees under this rule received no social protection. They were excluded from health insurance, did not qualify for unemployment benefits or other social assistance, and had no enforceable right to be reassigned. Should the employee initiate termination to secure medically suitable employment elsewhere, they lose entitlement to statutory benefits, most notably severance pay and the more extended notice period that would have been due in the event of termination by the employer.
The Constitutional Court found that the regulation imposed uniform legal consequences on two fundamentally different groups: those temporarily unfit for work due to illness and those permanently unfit for a specific job due to medical reasons. As such, the provision amounted to reverse discrimination, creating a disproportionately adverse effect on medically unfit workers.
Moreover, the Constitutional Court found that depriving medically unfit employees of both work and income, while also excluding them from social security benefits, violated constitutional guarantees.
While employees may not be required to perform work that risks their health, the court emphasised that this does not release employers from their broader duties under labour law, such as offering suitable alternative positions or formally terminating employment where reassignment is impossible.
