Out of the blue: workers at Continental in Makó were deregistered and re-registered from employment

Rubber factory workers employed without social security status

Without his knowledge, the Makó-based Continental / Contitech Fluid Automotive Hungaria Kft. has been employing the head of the trade union for years without registration and, naturally, without paying contributions. It has emerged that several of the company’s current and former employees may also have been affected in the same way, without their knowledge.

Roland Hajdú recently received a notice from the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary (NAV), ordering him to pay a significant amount because, since 2024, he has had no registered employment relationship, as Continental / Contitech Fluid Automotive Hungaria Kft. had not paid the required contributions after him. In order to clarify the matter, our colleague looked into the issue and was informed at the Szeged office that the company had deregistered him in 2024, and that his social security status has not been settled since then.

According to Hajdú, this is incomprehensible, since his employment relationship has seemingly been continuous. He works for the company in an instructor position, using trade union time-off allowance, and he receives both salary and payslips. In other words, there was nothing to suggest that he too had been “dismissed”, as had happened to a colleague of his in Szeged. During the consultation with NAV, it also came to light that on several occasions — and in some cases for years — the company had changed his weekly 40-hour registration to 30 hours, which also came as a surprise to Hajdú.

Naturally, Hajdú immediately tried to request information from the company’s HR manager, but he did not receive a substantive response. In addition, unfortunately, before Continental AG began selling parts of the company, it outsourced payroll services in 2025 under a long-term contract to a company with “Far Eastern background”, and employees can only handle such matters at the sites through a limited customer service system. Based on complaints, however, only administrators without any real information are available to employees, and it is unfortunately also a fact that company management is unwilling to communicate with the trade union. Therefore, for the time being, there is no information about the causes of this anomaly.

Unfortunately, following these events, our trade union became aware that there are other colleagues at the Contitech factory in Makó who have experienced similar problems, but we do not have the possibility to request a comprehensive inspection from the authorities. Therefore, we ask for the help of the press in ensuring that this news reaches all current and former workers of Continental sites, since payroll for all factories bearing the Continental name was previously handled in Veszprém. It is extremely unpleasant if it only turns out years later that the company unlawfully deregistered employees during an active employment relationship, since, as far as we know, this means that healthcare services may also legally be denied to Roland Hajdú.

We are also forced to turn to the press because these sites prohibit and block trade unions from sending emails to employees.

Roland Hajdú has, of course, submitted the necessary reports in the matter. Once there is a result, we will update our statement.

Gábor Radics
President of GSZSZ
17 April 2026