BUDAPEST, HUNGARY: Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany has asked employers to allow staff to discard their stockings and ties this week, as authorities issued an alert for an oncoming heat wave.

"Ferenc Gyurcsany has asked government administrators to relax the official dress code owing to the heat wave and allow women for example to go without stockings and men to go without ties," the prime minister's spokeswoman Bernadett Budai said in a statement.

Those working outdoors must also be allowed at least a 10-minute break every hour and access to liquids every half-hour to guard against dehydration.

The thermometer is set to rise above 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) this week, with average daily temperatures forecast to be above 25 Celsius for three consecutive days.