Socialists: Fidesz ‘siding with multinationals’ on employee rights

The Socialist party said on Tuesday that by rejecting an opposition bill on regulating relations in the workplace between management and employees, the government was “siding with oligarchs and multinationals”.

Deputy party leader Imre Komjáthi told a press conference in Budapest that the proposal would have mandated companies and businesses that are strategic partners of the government to comply with laws protecting the rights of employees.

Lajos Korozs, the head of parliament’s welfare committee, said the ruling party politicians had “betrayed workers three times” by passing the labour code amendment raising the cap on overtime in an amendment dubbed “the slave law”, by refusing to scrap the “slave law” in parliament, and by rejecting the opposition’s current bill.

Komjáthi said

the Socialist party will continue to support trade unions and use all tools “within or outside parliament” to protect employee rights.

The ruling Fidesz party said in response that

the Socialists had “told lies” about the Labour Code for the past year as part of a political campaign.

Fidesz said in a statement that the previous government under the Socialists had been responsible for the loss of one million jobs and high wage taxes, as well as “humiliatingly low wages”. The opposition also refused to back tax cuts that benefited Hungarian workers in recent years, it added.

“It’s clear that the amendment to the Labour Code has not had any negative effects,” Fidesz said, adding that overtime was voluntary and the law allows anyone who wants to work more and earn more to do so while protecting their rights.

• Companies not applying ‘slave provisions’?