Teachers fail to strike agreement with ministry ahead of demo

Budapest, February 12 (MTI) – A teachers’ strike committee met ministry representatives on Friday for talks, but no agreement was reached, the head of the teachers’ union PSZ told a press conference. The state secretary at the human resources ministry said the government is open to resolve issues through talks and repeated calls for unions to attend ongoing negotiations in the framework of the public education roundtable.

Piroska Galló, head of PSZ, one of the two biggest teachers’ unions, said teachers had put 25 points on the table which were discussed, but sides were apart. She said it was regrettable that HR Minister Zoltán Balog could not attend the talks.

Gabriella Hajnal, head of the union OVSZ, said they had been promised written proposals by next week and József Tóth, head of MKSZSZ, said teachers expected it would be easiest to make progress on “employment issues”.