Low pay/minimum wages, Economic Policy, Hungary
On the National Day of Hungarian Culture, Hungarian workers in the cultural sector demand better pay!
EPSU affiliates KKDSZ are holding a demonstration to protest the unacceptable low level of pay across the culture sector and the lack of any pay increase for their members for over 10 years.
Union action on pay on day of culture
The KKDSZ culture workers' union has launched a petition highlighting low pay in the sector and plans to hand it to the minister of human resources on 22 January, the national day of culture. The union will highlight the contradiction of government claims that national culture is important while failing to increase pay for museum, library and other culture workers for over 10 years or engage in proper collective bargaining. The union is planning a number of events in Budapest and other cities. EPSU send a message of solidarity.
Culture union delivers petition on pay
The KKDSZ culture worker's union delivered a petition with 3000 signatures to the ministry of culture on 22nd January calling for immediate negotiations on pay. The petition was the initiative of employees of the Fine Art Museum and was taken up by KKDSZ. Some workers in the sector have not had a pay rise for over 10 years and 80% of qualified staff have to survive on only EUR 580 a month (gross).
East-West pay convergence stalls
Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Estonia Hungary Latvia Lithuania Poland Romania Slovak Republic Slovenia
An analysis by the European Trade Union Institute shows that wage convergence between East and West in Europe was steady up until 2008. However, since then the trend has either stalled or gone into reverse. Taking national average pay as a percentage of the average across the pre-2004 EU15, Croatia and Hungary show the largest increase in the pay gap since 2008. There were also increases in Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.Most progress was made in Bulgaria but from a very low level (11.8%) to 17.7%, still less than a fifth of average pay in the West.
Hungarian public sector workers need a pay rise
EPSU has joined with its Hungarian affiliates in calling for a long overdue pay rise across the public sector. While different groups of workers have seen some increases in pay in recent years, there has been no across-the-board pay rise for all workers for nine years.
Childcare workers support ETUC pay rise campaign
(April 2017) The BDDSz childcare workers' trade union is supporting the ETUC's pay rise campaign. The union sees that many of the headline demands of the campaign - tackling low pay and the gender pay gap - fit with the union's priorities and it is encouraging members to show their support.