Gyurcsány’s party demands ending ‘cheap Hungarian labour’ policy

The policy based on cheap labour and its exploitation must end in Hungary, Klára Dobrev, an MEP of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), said on Friday, after consultations with trade unions about the European minimum wage regulations.

Dobrev called it a “symbolic act” that she had her first discussion as DK’s shadow prime minister with union leaders. “Hungarian workers on monthly payrolls have been excessively exploited over the past 12 years, in part through depriving the trade unions of their rights,” she told a press conference. Dobrev said DK’s shadow cabinet would draft a minimum-wage scheme based on preliminary consultations with trade unions, employers’ associations, economists and social scientists in the coming months, arguing that “real work on this matter cannot be expected at all from the incumbent cabinet”.

DK’s shadow cabinet will prepare “an action plan” on better representing the interests of Hungarian employees on a European level, said Dobrev.

On Thursday, VFK, a forum of employers, unions and the government, started consultations regarding next year’s minimum wage and the guaranteed minimum wage for skilled workers. The monthly minimum wage in Hungary rose by 19 percent as of January 1 this year to 200,000 forints (EUR 493) for unskilled labourers and to 260,000 forints for skilled workers.