Access to Justice in Labour Cases in Hungary during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Access to justice is a fundamental right of workers stipulated in a set of international, EU and national instruments of law. The lockdowns induced by the Covid-19 pandemic have had double negative impact on the effective enforcement of this right. While pandemic-related lockdowns resulted in an increasing number of labour disputes and dismissals as well as generated novel and difficult questions of labour law, accessibility of legal remedies in Hungary became limited through the (temporary) restrictions concerning the functioning of the judiciary. In parallel, emergency-related amendments of labour law have, on the one hand, supported the survival of undertakings, on the other hand, restricted individual and collective rights of workers. This paper is designed to give a comprehensive view on the endeavours of Hungarian labour courts to guarantee the possibly uninterrupted and safe maintenance of litigation in labour cases.