Labour shortage: overloaded and underpaid nurses

As we reported before, the labour shortage has become critical in Hungary and hinders economic development. The most affected sectors are public transport and service, tourism and IT. However, the number of skilled nurses and doctors is falling too despite government efforts. This is because they leave the country to work for better wages in Western-Europe. As a result, there are not enough nurses in Hungary, though its population did not stop ageing. This might threaten proper health care service according to Hír Tv. A solution could be the Wage Union initiated by biggest opposition party Jobbik, but the government does not support it.

A fourth job cannot be a solution

According to Hír TV, nurses are remarkably underpaid. Thus, they can only pay their bills, if they have more than one job. However, their tiredness can threaten proper health care service thus, Independent Trade Union of Healthcare Workers prepares for a strike.

Adrianna Soós, president of the trade union stated that

the final straw in this regard was the postponement of their Christmas premium promised before.

She cleared that according to their last information government only modified the original date for negotiations about wage increase. But nobody talked about their previously promised year-end money which they did not receive.

However, János Lázár, the Minister of Prime Minister’s Office stated that the salaries of the nurses rose 20pc in the last two years. He added that this is a great achievement from the Hungarian economy and the taxpayers. ‘Of course, this does not mean that we are satisfied with the wages, but the process is not finished’.

Nurses are afraid but desperate

In fact, the trade union admits that the pay rise was good. However, they think that it came too late and the money was too little. Therefore, they expect results until the end of January regarding the negotiations.