Authors: Dr. Ákos Kékuti, Dr. Brigitta Kovács-Vitek
The new legislation abolishes the compulsory medical examination in most cases. Currently, employers are responsible for ensuring that workers undergo a medical examination, without which no employment can take place, so this new legislation is important.
The constant administration, keeping up with the demands of a bureaucratic system, requires huge human resources, time and money from employers. However, a recent amendment to the law will make a significant change in this respect, as expected from September 1, 2024, it will largely abolish the compulsory medical examination.
The amendment just passed is aimed to make life easier for employers and remove unnecessary burdens.
Until now, the legislation required employees to undergo a compulsory medical examination of their fitness for work before they could start working, and to repeat it periodically. These examinations were carried out by an occupational health specialist and were provided free of charge by the employer.
However, the organization of compulsory medical examinations also placed a significant financial and administrative burden on employers, including organizing the examinations, ensuring that the employee attended, and keeping records of which employees had and had not had routine examinations.
Even in smaller workplaces, the process has already placed a considerable amount of work on those who have to carry out administrative tasks, so hats off to those who have had to manage them in a workplace with hundreds of employees.
However, it is obvious that the health and safety of employees should not be put at risk for the sake of easier administration, so in order to avoid this, in the future the specific jobs and tasks where medical examinations cannot be waived will be defined by regulations, but the number of these will be significantly reduced.
It should be remembered, however, that while the abolition of the compulsory medical examination is a relief as described above, it also poses a risk for employers in other respects. The employer's liability under employment law is objective in principle, and there are only a few possibilities of excuse in the event of an accident at work or occupational illness.
The burden of proving a circumstance that exonerates the employer or results in a shared liability is on the employer, but will result in much more difficult, expert questions due to the lack of prior medical examinations. To avoid this, and to give the employer foresight, the law will of course not prohibit the unilateral imposition of a medical examination, obviously with the cost of this still being borne by the employer.
Should you have any questions in relation to the above or to any further labour law related issues, please do not hesitate to contact Germus & Partners Attorneys-At-Law.
The information set out above is for information purposes only and should not be regarded as legal advice provided by any lawyers or trainee lawyers of Germus & Partners Attorneys-At-Law.
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