Employees of Hungarian state companies to receive higher wages from April

Budapest, March 24 (MTI) – Employees of state companies are scheduled to receive higher wages from April and they will get the increase retroactively from January 2017, development ministry state secretary János Fónagy said on Friday.

Wage deals have been signed for the next three years for most state-owned companies. The increase will be an average 13 percent this year, 12 percent in 2018 and 5 percent in 2019, Fónagy told a press conference.

Out of 220 companies with majority state ownership, 79 said they were unable to finance the increase from their own resources. As a result, 40 billion forints (EUR 130m) has been allocated in the central budget for this purpose in 2017, 45.6 billion forints in 2018 and 26.3 billion forints in 2019, he said.

The wage hike is necessary to keep employees and to to hire new people in professions where there is a shortage, Fónagy said.

Source: MTI