Unions want to revisit wage agreement in light of higher growth

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Photo by Liptak Robert / Shutterstock.com

Trade unions want to renegotiate the scale of minimum wage rises for next year in light of higher than expected economic growth, a union leader told state news wire MTI after talks with employers on Wednesday.

Image: Liptak Robert/Shutterstock.com

Melinda Mészáros, who chairs unions association Liga, said GDP growth, productivity and inflation were all higher than expected this year, grounds for re-negotiating the planned minimum wage rise.

The VKF, a forum of employers unions and the government, agreed a year earlier to raise the minimum wage for skilled and unskilled workers by 8% in both 2019 and 2020. The wage rise was part of an earlier agreement reached between the sides pairing wage growth with payroll tax cuts.

Ferenc Rolek, who heads employersʼ association MGYOSZ, said negotiating next yearʼs wages is difficult without the Finance Ministryʼs latest macroeconomic projections for 2020, which it has promised to deliver by December 20.

He added that the government had nixed employersʼ requests to move forward payroll tax cuts to the start of the calendar year from July 1, citing fiscal reasons.

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