Dangerous: Hungary out of fire-fighters?
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Starting a career as a fire-fighter is no longer attractive in Hungary – according to index.hu. Since salaries are low and the work is both physically and mentally wearing, many give up the job. Thus, average fire-fighters are now 40 years old in Hungary, which can cause some serious problems. In the past there used to be a waiting list for the entrants, now they have to recruit them. However, Hungarian National Organization For Rescue Services (HUNOR) states, based on official data, such problems do not exist.
Career in the past, almost no applicants at present
Nobody showed up on a recruitment organized by the local rescue services in Érd. According to index.hu local branch of HUNOR tried to recruit in two other cities of Pest County before. However, everybody went home after they learned that their salary will be only 40,000 forints (EUR 130) during the training. Officers in Érd say that one has to go even deeper in order to get to the root of the problem.
“The problem is huge.
I have never seen before that youth was tried to be recruited with the help of advertisements with the age limit of 55. This is very problematic”
– said one of the sources who have been working as a fire-fighter for decades. In addition, he cleared that formerly there were long waiting lists for the entrants and entrants had to wait for months or even years until they could start working. Furthermore, everybody could retire at the age of 50. Whereas today even a 55 year old can start working any time. Finally, it used to be unimaginable that somebody left the job before retirement. Today the fluctuation is big and while many leave almost no one comes. Even those who, after all, start to work as a fire-fighter leave soon if they get a better offer. And unfortunately, getting a better offer is not too difficult.
Low wages make fire-fighters go
“A young colleague of ours has just left us and started to work for a governmental company. His present net is more than his former gross!” – said a fire-fighter. Another one added: “one of our colleagues learned to become a TV mechanic. First, he started to work as a repair man only part-time, but when he received his first salary he left us and he works now as a full time mechanic”. And there are more of such stories.
Guys, you mixed up things big time. HUNOR is a heavy urban search and rescue team. If you read the original article, what you think “HUNOR”, in reality, is NDGDM, the National Directorate General for Disaster Management. Where did you get this, really? Try to be more accurate, please.