Hungary - Pension holders blame suspension of payment transfers - November 29, 2010

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the Parliament building on 14 November to protest against the government for diverting private pension fund contributions to the central budget. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, organisers of the protest voiced their dismay that the government had not consulted the private pension funds, representing some three million members, before deciding to divert payment transfers to the state budget for 14 months. Pension fund holders are “aware of the difficult financial situation the country is in, but find it unacceptable that the government is trying to solve the problem by seizing contributions,” the letter, calling to withdraw the pension law, stated.

English: Máté Komiljovics, union correspondent

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2010.