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HOW REPORTING OF EMPLOYEE-TRAININGS HAS CHANGED FROM SEPTEMBER 2020 IN HUNGARY?
14 October 2020
From September 2020 the rules, which regulate the status of the adult educators and the organisation of adult educations have changed. There are significantly more educations, which are considered as adult education and performing an adult education entails a lot more obligation. The changes affect almost every employer who organises certain kind of educations for its employees. We summarize the most important changes concerning the adult education.
1. What is considered as adult education?
The definition of adult education is laid down in the Adult Education Act.[1] Pursuant to that Act, every organized education or training, which aims to achieve targeted competence creation and competence improvement, except the education and training of public schools, vocational institutes, higher educations, is considered as adult education activity. (“adult education”)
Therefore, the biggest change is that due to the amendment of the Adult Education Act, every education, which meets the new, quite general definition of the Adult Education Act is considered as adult education, not just the listed educations as earlier.
The Adult Education Act also sets out the definition of the internal training, which is quite common at employers. The internal training is a not profit oriented training organized by the employer for its own employees within its own work organisation or for the employees of his supplier or for the employees of his partner- or related companies.
As the internal training organised by the employer is not subject to different rules, it is necessary to evaluate appropriately whether the particular training is considered as adult education and whether the employer has any obligations in this regard.
2. Is the occupational safety training an adult education?
To decide whether an internal training is considered as adult education, its purposefulness and organised character should be evaluated.
For instance, a service, which has no clearly identified training aim or pre-defined time frame (i.e. consultancy, advice process) or which has no influence on the development of the participant (e.g.: downloadable content, newsletter) is not considered as adult education.
By contrast, an activity, which has aims, timeframe and targets to acquire competence (e.g. training for language exams for pre-defined number of hours) is considered as adult education.
Consequently, according to the information material drafted by the Ministry for Innovation and Technology and published on the website of the Hungarian Government[2], occupational safety and fire protection trainings are considered as adult education and these can be performed only on the basis of notification.
3. What are the new obligations of the adult educators?
The proper assessment of a training is a key issue as due to the amendment of the Adult Education Act, from 1st September 2020 adult education can be performed only on the basis of notification or in specified cases, on the basis of permit [3].
Who is obliged to notify the internal training, shall be assessed based on the individual circumstances of the implementation of the training. According to the information material of the Ministry, if the employer organises the training, but he entrusts one (or more) external educator, the adult educator is the employer and he shall comply with the related obligations (e.g. notification). If the employer orders the above activity from an adult educator, the latter shall comply with the obligations laid down in the Adult Education Act.
In case of an adult education performed on the basis of notification, the adult educator shall conclude an adult education contract with the person, who participates in the education, furthermore, he shall provide data to the adult education reporting system about the adult education and the person who participates in it, provided that he did not prohibit the data transmission.
4. What are the legal consequences if the adult educator fails to comply with the obligations?
If the adult educator performs the adult education without the necessary notification or permit, the government body for adult education, namely the Government Office of Pest County prohibits to continue the adult education and imposes a fine on the adult educator. The authority also imposes a fine if the adult educator does not perform the adult education in compliance with the law.
In case of an infringement, the amount of the fine can range from the amount of 1 month’s mandatory minimum wage to the amount of 15 months’ minimum wage. In case of performing an adult education without notification or permit, the amount of the fine can range from the amount of 10 months’ to 50 months’ mandatory minimum wage, depending on the term of the unlawful education, the number of participants and its recurring character.
Furthermore, in case of repeated infringement of the law, the adult educator shall be prohibited from pursuing adult education activity for 2 years.
5. Summary
Considering that the amendment of the Adult Education Act extended the definition of adult education, it is possible that the education organised by the employer is considered as adult education subject to notification. Given that an adult education, which is not notified, may result in serious fines, every employer should examine the education organised by him and take the necessary measures.
[1] Act LXXVII of 2013 on Adult Education
[2] https://www.kormany.hu/download/4/83/e1000/20201001_ITM_Felnottkepzes_tajekoztato.pdf
[3] Permit is required in case of vocational training or education for part-trade pursuant to the act on vocational training and in case of supported education or training, except for internal trainings and the educations and trainings organised based on specific legal regulations..
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