Guest workers to drive buses between Budapest city centre and Budapest Airport?

Before, Ambrus Kiss, one of Budapest’s deputy mayors, excluded that they would employ foreign workforce at the companies in the ownership of the capital. However, some subcontractors decided otherwise. Thankfully, there will be an English-language dispatcher helping them.

According to index.hu, Mr Kiss said before that Budapest-owned transport companies would not employ foreign workforce. Before, the press wrote about the possible employment of Filipino drivers. He added that there was a workforce reserve in Hungary they would not like to give up.

However, BKK, Budapest’s transport company, has a subcontractor, ArrivaBus Ltd. They operate 450 buses in the city and they employ Filipino drivers. Mr Kiss said they would monitor customer service and information on their buses. Furthermore, they expect the foreign drivers to know at least enough Hungarian to communicate with the passengers.

Mr Kiss said then that employing foreign drivers was a wrong direction, because it would decrease wages.

Employing foreign workforce is bad news

However, Gábor Naszályi, a Hungarian transport trade union’s chairman, told ATV that guest workers will drive on bus line nr 100. That is not the airport shuttle connecting the city centre with Budapest Airport, which is 100E. Buses under the nr 100 commute in the 10th district, between Örs vezér Square and Expo Square.

Mr Naszályi said that the decision was a step towards the wrong direction. He added that talks about next year’s salary increase started at the BKV. He highlighted it was good news that they could conduct substantive negotiations with the company as opposed to their colleagues working at state-owned Volánbusz.

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