This is how the government saves Hungary’s biggest steelworks

The transfer of January wages for Dunaferr steelworks employees is starting within a few days in line with a government decision to help several thousand families whose livelihoods have come under threat, an official of the economic development ministry said on Friday.

The situation arose after the company was ruined by its former owners and management, the war, misguided EU sanctions and the energy crisis, Sándor Czomba said in a statement.

The government has set up a jobs protection committee and commissioned a liquidator that has already started settling the company’s situation. December wages were already paid from a wage guarantee fund, he added.

At the proposal of Lajos Mészáros, a lawmaker from Dunaújváros where the steelworks are located, the government decided to pay Dunaferr workers’ wages for six months, at total cost of over 16 billion forints (EUR 41m), Czomba said. A new owner guaranteeing reliable and permanent operation will be sought in the upcoming months in order to protect jobs and the families of the workers, he added.