Workers Saved by Government Action Amid Alleged Legal Breach by Liberty Steel

Hungary Today 2024.11.18.

The government has paid the October wages of Dunaferr Group workers from the Wage Guarantee Fund at the request of MP Lajos Mészáros, because the steel company Liberty Steel failed to meet its legal obligations after repeated requests.

The nearly 3,500 workers concerned received their wages, for which the government earmarked some HUF 2 billion (EUR 4.8 million), ensuring the livelihoods of their families, writes Magyar Nemzet. The Anglo-Indian group continues to fail to meet its obligations, its promises to develop the ironworks and its expectations to restart production.

The government, seeing the company’s recent attitude, has already created the legal possibility of paying wages, thus providing an accelerated means of bringing forward the payments.

The government, under the possibility offered by the Wage Guarantee Fund, has temporarily undertaken to finance the wages of the company’s employees, at the request of Lajos Mészáros, the MP for the region, due to the critical situation of the Dunaferr Group. The employees of the Dunaferr group – Duna Furnace Dunai Vasmű, Dunarolling Dunai Vasmű, Dunaferr Labor Nonprofit – have recently received their salaries thanks to the measures. The government is on the side of the workers, as it has been in the past, and will do its utmost to ensure that everyone receives the wages they are entitled to. By the end of June last year, the group had already received a total of HUF 17.6 billion (EUR 43 million) in government aid, helping to safeguard jobs and the livelihoods of the families concerned.

Fact

Dunaferr had become insolvent by the end of 2022, making it impossible to operate the factory and threatening the jobs of thousands of workers. Dunaferr was put into liquidation in December 2022, a process that created the legal framework necessary for the factory to survive. By the end of that year, Dunaferr’s operations were prevented from becoming permanently unprofitable, and the plant suffered serious and irreversible damage due to a loss of energy supply and a shortage of raw materials. The only valid and winning bid for the purchase of the factory was submitted by Liberty Steel, which rushed to the rescue of the plant in December 2022, at a time when the steel industry worldwide was going through its most difficult period. However, the plant was once again in difficulty. Liberty developed a 100-day program in which it undertook to stabilize and increase production, integrate purchasing systems, and develop partnerships with suppliers. The company pledged to secure the long-term livelihoods of the workers at the factory and to continue to improve wages.

Giant Liberty Steel Faces Pressure from Government Over Unpaid Wages

The current owner of Dunai Vasmű claims that it cannot pay the salaries of thousands of its workers.Continue reading

Via Magyar Nemzet, Featured image via Pixabay