Crazy wages in Hungary: 700 EUR for a street sweeper, 850 EUR for a court clerk?!

Three thousand judges got a significant pay rise, but the clerks aiding them received nothing, so many of them decide to leave their jobs. Meanwhile, the labour shortage is becoming a more and more problematic issue in Hungary. A street sweeper gets almost the same wage as a court clerk with 16 years of experience.

The salary of judges increased this year by an average 32 pc, and they can expect a 12 pc pay rise next year and 13 pc rise in 2022. Meanwhile, the 8 thousand employees who help their job received mostly a 10 EUR/month pay rise this year, Nepszava reported. Furthermore, there are 6 thousand people whose salary did not improve. This is why there are court clerks who have 16 years of experience in the field and get less than 850 EUR per month, as well as administrators who get even less. Finally, a physical worker in court responsible for delivering documents

can take less than 400 EUR/month home. 

The court clerks last received a pay rise in 2017, but that concerned only those who received very low wages. The former chairwoman of the National Judicial Office, Tünde Handó, said in the debate of the law concerning judicial employees in 2016 that without a significant pay rise, the system will not be able to maintain the workforce. For example,

in one of the courts, all clerks went to work in the nearby supermarket as shelf stackers because there they receive 50 EUR more per month.

However, nothing happened despite her warning.

Furthermore, those working in the courts say that the IT background is outdated, their computers are mostly useless, so it happens a lot that they cannot do anything for half a day because the computers do not work. They do not receive extra money for overtime, and sometimes, they even have to take their work home because they cannot finish it in the office. Moreover, in the case of the Hungarian Institute of Forensic Sciences, where scientists, chemists, graphologists, and weaponeers work, without whom courts would not be able to operate, the situation is the same. 

According to Portfolio, a street sweeper gets 700 EUR/month in the downtown of Budapest because

the labour shortage is so great

that with a lower sum, local governments could not find the necessary workforce.

Interestingly, the Hungarian government introduced a Public Work Scheme years before, but its budget was cut this year by an additional 40 billion HUF. The program aims to provide work opportunities and so help people get back on the job market. Experts say, however, that there is a social group of more than 100 thousand people who will never be able to do so. 

Source: nepszava.hu, portfolio.hu