Orbán cabinet to ease hiring temporary workers from the Far East
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Based on a new bill, the government would ease the hiring of temporary workers from the Far East. Therefore, licensed labour-hire agencies would be created in Hungary. Trade unions became enraged because of the bill on the parliament’s desk. They say that the government would like to ease the labour shortage with the help of Far-Eastern guest workers instead of searching for answers to why Hungarian employees quit.
Job in Hungary without a work permit?
According to Népszava, the government would like to open the country’s gates to Vietnamese, Indonesian, Mongolian, and Filipino guest workers. The new bill is part of a “salat bill” including all measures the government would like to introduce after the end of the COVID emergency state. If it passes, third world guest workers could come easier to Hungary with the help of licensed labour-hire agencies. As a result,
they could get a job even without a work permit.
Furthermore, the government decrees would regulate how a labour-hire agency can become licensed.
The idea is not new. Foreign minister Péter Szijjártó thought after the first wave that labour-hire agencies are the key to economic restart. Therefore, they signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Prohumán Ltd. Szijjártó announced last summer that they allowed guest workers to temporarily come to Hungary with the help of licensed labour-hire agencies. Last September, 13 firms could get into that category.
The government wants to deal with labour shortage
The website of Prohumán Ltd, one of the 13 licensed agencies, says that they hire guest workers from 11 non-EU countries: Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Montenegro, and Vietnam.
Zoltán László, a vice-chairman of the Vasas federation of union workers, said that this measure would not solve the labour shortage in Hungary. He added that only some labour-hire agencies would receive good revenues. He said that the government thought a couple of years ago that the Serbian and Ukrainian guest workers would solve the labour shortage. However, too few came, and most went farther West quickly.