Magyar Televízió

198 jobs
Number of planned job losses

Announcement Date

28 December 2006

Employment effect (start)

2 January 2007

Foreseen end date

Description

Hungarian state television, Magyar Televízió Zrt. (MTV), is laying off 198 employees, some 174 of whom are white collar workers and 24 blue collar ones. The mass redundancy is likely to affect regional studios of the public television as well. The reason behind the decision is that salaries of staff amounted to almost half of the entire budget of the public television after a proportion of external, contracted employees were hired in summer of 2006. Spokesperson of MTV, Ms Katalin Holub claimed that the public television would be able to save as much as HUF 1 billion per year with the lay-offs. In December MTV notified the Budapest Employment Centre, the works council and the representative trade unions, of the planned mass redundancy. Works council president, Mr Gábor Kapuvári, and HR director of MTV, Ms Csilla Zvornik, agreed to prepare a proposal to assist laid off employees in their job search for the negotiations between the works council and the institutions scheduled to start on 9 January 2007. Mr Kapuvári would like to make sure that no spouses, single parents or older employees are dismissed.

MTV began the mass redundancy on 31 January. It announced that instead of 198 employees, 146 will be dismissed, out of whom 138 are white-collar workers and 10 are in managerial position. As a result of negotiations between the works council and the management of MTV in previous weeks, employment relationship of those made redundant will be terminated in March the earliest. Redundant employees will have the chance to decide about the job reduction measure: by mutual agreement, early retirement or dismissal by the employer.

Sources

• 1 February 2007: Magyar Nemzet
• 28 December 2006: Népszabadság
• 2 January 2007: Népszava
• 2 February 2007: HVG