Social-Sector Workers Protest for Better Pay

Budapest, November 12 (MTI) – Trade unions representing welfare workers staged a demonstration in Budapest on Wednesday evening, pressing for higher wages.

Speakers addressing the protesters called for a new career model to be introduced in the social work sectors from 2016 and new pay grades from January 2015. A petition containing demands was handed over to a representative of the prime minister.

A majority of workers in the social sector take home the minimum wage or around that amount and they cannot make a living, Julia Leksz Toth, a member of the steering board of the Union of Social-Sector Workers said. She said employees are ready to announce a nation-wide strike if their demands are not met.

Laszlo Kiss, head of the Independent Union of Health-Care Workers, said some 27-30 billion forints (EUR 88-98m) should be set aside in the 2015 budget to raise wages in the sector.

Demonstrators marched from the building of the Ministry of Human Resources in Akademia street to parliament and chanted anti-government slogans, stressing that their pay has not increased since 2008 and that they had been disappointed by governments both on the right and left.

Photo: MTI – Balazs Mohai

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters