Thousands of teachers, bus drivers, postal workers missing in Hungary

There are places in the country where the local school has to find a full teaching staff if they want to open in September. Meanwhile, tens of thousands leave the country because of low wages.

Every company has to fight for the workforce

According to nepszava.hu, big Hungarian state-owned companies like MÁV (Hungarian Railways), Volánbusz Ltd (operating bus lines), Hungarian Post or BKV (Budapest Transport Privately Held Corporation) are currently searching for 2,500 new employees. 

The postal service company would like to find letter carriers, drivers and they have a lot of part-time job offers, as well. More than half of the jobs do not require a higher qualification than the 8 classes of the primary school which is interesting because a large part of these open positions are in small villages where people are not highly qualified, and still, the company cannot find the workforce. In the last three years, the Hungarian Post raised wages by 40.4 pc, and there are many kinds of bonuses, too. All the same, letter carriers

do not take home more than 500 EUR per month.

In the case of MÁV, there are not enough engineers, mechanics, overhead cable repairers, cashiers and ticket inspectors. Furthermore, János Meleg, chairman of the MÁV trade union, says that there are many permanently sick people in the staff and their replacement is challenging to find. This is probably because a large part of their team is already above 50. However, according to MÁV, the fluctuation is lower than 10 pc among their employees thanks to the many kinds of fringe benefits the company provides. A ticket inspector, for example, receives 600 EUR per month.

Volánbusz Ltd said to Népszava that their permanent recruiting campaign is successful though Imre Palkovics, president of the National Confederation of Workers’ Councils, said that without further payrise long-distance bus transport might collapse next year.

Bus drivers now get 15 pc less than the national average,