Competition between Hungarians and foreigners : An urgent overhaul needed in employment

Hungary may require an urgent overhaul of its immigration laws due to increasing competition between Hungarian and foreign workers. This dynamic could potentially lead to workplace challenges where both groups collaborate. Despite the potential costs associated with recruiting workers from countries outside the EU, certain Hungarian companies opt to employ foreign workers.

The reason why some Hungarian companies are keen to recruit workers from third world countries are quite simple. Foreign workers, driven by the desire to maximise their earnings, often sacrifice their leisure time to work overtime. This creates competition between the Hungarian workers and their foreign counterparts, as Hungarians may not engage in as much overtime. Various factors contribute to this difference, including potential limitations on foreign workers’ ability to spend leisure time happily due to language barriers or being distant from their families. Additionally, companies, when downsizing, may prefer to retain foreign workers over Hungarians.

This could also interest you:

• Daily flights between Budapest and major world centre in Asia from March!
• BREAKING NEWS: Budapest and the Government reach agreement on new public transport season tickets!

The two sides of recruiting

An article published by Portfolio features interviws with individuals holding opposing views on this matter. One interviewee, a former factory worker, witnessed negative effects, while the other, representing a company, experienced positive outcomes after recruiting abroad. Positive aspects arise when a company rapidly expands and struggles to find enough Hungarian workers promptly, prompting them to seek additional manpower from other countries. This was the case with a Gyöngyös-based company, where a worker from said company told Portfolio that:

Our experience shows that intensive recruitment needs cannot be met in the long term by regional labour supply, despite the decades of practice that has always given priority to local recruitment.

The negative effect of employing foreign workers include the expectation for Hungarian workers to match the overtime hours put in by their colleagues. In situations where they cannot keep up, downsizing tends to result in Hungarians being the ones more likely to face termination – according to the interviewee.

Government promises to take action

The Ministry of National Economy has already conducted an investigation into a company accused of dismissing more Hungarian workers than foreigners during downsizing. The South Korean company under scrutiny stated that they had not only dismissed Hungarian workers but also workers from foreign countries. The Minister of State for Employment Policy at the Ministry of National Economy, Sándor Czomba, has already convened representatives from nearly 30 qualified temporary employment agencies for a meeting in his office. During the meeting, he emphasised that the primary objective should be to fill vacancies with Hungarian workers whenever possible. Accordingly, the employment of foreign workers in Hungary will be permitted only when there is a shortage of available Hungarian workers. The State Secretary further affirmed that this will be ensured through legislation, which is currently being drafted and adopted. The number of foreign workers in Hungary as of today is nearly 100,000.