Budapest leadership working to resume waste collection services

Budapest’s leadership is working to ensure that waste collection services in the city resume, Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Thursday, adding that talks in the matter would continue.

Budapest’s FKF waste management company announced on Tuesday that several hundred of its employees had started a strike, saying that the wage hikes they had received had been eroded by inflation and increased utility costs.

Karácsony said on Facebook that from Thursday, waste collection was the responsibility of the disaster management authority.

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The mayor said he had met FKF workers on Thursday morning and had proposed a HUF 200,000  (EUR 474) utility bill subsidy in addition to a 15 percent wage hike.

The offer will be discussed with Budapest company unions as well, he added.

The mayor said the city council’s revenues were not even enough to cover its own electricity costs.

“But we won’t back down on solidarity and on helping as much as we can,” Karácsony said.

Zsolt Wintermantel, group leader of ruling Fidesz in the Budapest city assembly, said the city council was required by law to ensure that waste collection services run smoothly.