The Labour Section of the Hungarian Economic Association held an election meeting and conference on foreign workers employed in Hungary on 5 March 2020 at the Conference Centre of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Budapest. The members re-elected József Bagó, Senior Counsellor of the Ministry of Interior, Department of Public Employment Strategy and Coordination as President for an additional period of three years. Márta Józsa, Head of Coordination Unit, Directorate General of the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture will remain in her position as Secretary of the Labour Section.
The election meeting took place as part of a conference entitled Foreign Workers in the Hungarian Labour Market. The speakers of the conference exploring the relevant trends, myths, questions and dilemmas included Judit Lakatos, statistician, retired senior advisor, Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) (Külföldiek a hazai munkaerőpiacon – Mit mutatnak az adatok? S mit nem mutatnak?); Mária Rédei Langerné, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Associate Professor at ELTE (Milyen trendek igazolhatók a külföldi munkavállalók hazai piacán?); Tibor T. Meszmann, researcher, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI) (Ukrán kölcsönzött dolgozók az elektronikai ágazatban); László Koji, Chairman, National Federation of Hungarian Building Contractors (ÉVOSZ) (Labour Movement in the Construction Industry Market – Employers’ Perspectives), and Zoltán László, Vice President, Hungarian Metalworkers’ Federation (A külföldi és magyar munkavállalók együtt a hazai munkaerőpiacon – Mit mondanak a szakszervezetek?). The event was moderated by Katalin Nagy, former Counsellor of the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU. The conference received detailed media coverage; for some of the articles see the links below.
The conference was followed by an election meeting. In addition to President József Bagó and Secretary Márta Józsa, the attending members of the Labour Section of the HEA unanimously elected the following Board members for the period 2020-2023: Annamária Artner, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, HAS Institute of World Economics; György Boda, Associate Professor, Corvinus University of Budapest; László Herczog, former Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, Economist of Pénzügykutató Zrt; Györgyi Ignits, Head of Department of Statistics, Analytics and Reporting, Ministry of Interior; Katalin Nagy, former Counsellor of the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU, Managing Director of Socfactor Consulting Tanácsadó Bt; István Sum, Honorary Professor, Milton Friedman University; and Adrienne Zemplényi, Legal Director, Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Media coverage of the conference:
Vendégmunkások, akikről szinte semmit nem tudunk (Index.hu)
A kormány támogatja, hogy dolgozzanak itt külföldiek, de sokan tartanak tőlük (HVG)
A munkaerőhiány gyógyszere a jó fizetés (Infovilág)
Most akkor mennyi vendégmunkás dolgozik Magyarországon? (Alfahír)
Related documents:
Slides by Judit Lakatos (pdf)
Slides by Mária Rédei Langerné (pdf)
Slides by Zoltán László (pdf)
Slides by Tibor T. Meszmann (pdf)
Report on the 2017-2019 professional activities of the Labour Section (pdf)