Parliament finally approved hourly work experience and froze maternity benefits

Tax credits for children will be frozen in 2026 and work experience will now be calculated based on actual hours worked. The National Assembly decided this with the final adoption of the 2026 State Budget Act on its second reading.

With the freeze on tax credits they remain at their current levels; the amounts that working parents will deduct from their annual tax base are maintained at the following levels:

• €3 067.75 for one child under the age of majority, or up to €306.78 in tax refunds;
• €6 135.50 for two children (up to €613.55);
• €9 203.25 for three or more children (up to €920.33).

Another point of contention concerned the amendments to the Labor Code. According to these amendments length of service will now be calculated in hours, with one day of service recognized as the time during which the full statutory working hours (8 h) were worked. For part-time work seniority will accrue proportionally – that is, an employee on a 4 h contract will accrue half a day of seniority per day and over the course of a year will accumulate approximately six months.

Here are the key provisions that were adopted:

• One day of employment will now be recognized as the time during which the employee has worked the full statutory working hours for that day. When an employee works part-time employment tenure will be calculated in proportion to their statutory working hours;
• One month of service will now be recognized if all working days for the month have been worked. Until now the rule was that at least 21 days had to be worked in a five-day workweek;
• One yr of length of service will be recognized when 12 mos have been credited toward length of service;
• When a person works under more than one employment contract length of service will be calculated for each one.

An important detail is that the new rules will take effect on January 1, 2027. The current provisions will remain in effect until the end of this year.

Translated with DeepL.