Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Workmen's Compensation (Occupational Diseases) Convention (Revised), 1934 (No. 42) - Hungary (Ratification: 1935)

Proof of the occupational origin of diseases. In its report, the Government indicates that, following a reform which entered into force on 1 January 2007, compensation is henceforth guaranteed in case of all occupational diseases, while previously only 35 diseases gave right to compensation. Nonetheless, the workers’ side within the National ILO Council considered that Annex 2 of Regulation No. 27/1996 does not list the occupational diseases but only the aetiological factors on the basis of which occupational diseases cannot be clearly identified and which places on employees the burden of proving in every case the occupational origin of their disease in long and complex court proceedings. In reply to these comments, the Government states that, in judicial proceedings, the plaintiff needs to prove his/her claim for damages both with respect to the causality between the work performed and the disease and between the disease and the compensation requested. The Committee wishes to recall that the Schedule appended to the Convention establishes a legal presumption of the vocational origin of the diseases listed in it whenever the workers concerned are employed in the corresponding trades, industries and processes, and relieves the worker of bearing the burden of proving the occupational origin of a disease and the costs of complex and lengthy judicial proceedings. The Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report measures taken with a view to re establishing the principle of presumption of occupational origin enshrined in the Convention at least with respect to the diseases established by the Schedule appended to the Convention.