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The
production and export of cars by foreign automakers is a key
driver of economic growth in Hungary, where wages for skilled
workers are well below Western European levels. The car sector
accounted for more than a quarter of total industrial output in
the eastern European Union member last year.
Daimler's deal follows months of negotiations at the 1 billion
euro factory in Kecskemet, central Hungary, which employs about
4,000 workers, according to its latest annual report.
Vasas, a major union which had sought a 15 percent wage hike,
held a two-hour strike at the plant late last month, delaying
the shipment of 50 cars.
Mercedes, which makes the B Class as well as CLA and CLA
Shooting Brake models in Hungary, will lift salaries by 10
percent for all workers from April and by another 10 percent
from April 2018, it said in a statement.
In July, Daimler, one of Hungary's biggest manufacturers, said
it would build a new factory in Hungary to make Mercedes-Benz
cars, spending another 1 billion euros by 2020 and adding around
2,500 new jobs.
Daimler's two-year accord is the first publicly announced wage
deal by a major private sector employer in Hungary since Prime
Minister Viktor Orban's government agreed with employers on big
hikes in the minimum wage last month.
Orban, who faces an election in early 2018, agreed with
employers that the minimum wage would increase by 15 percent in
2017 and another 8 percent in 2018, while payroll tax will be
cut by 7 percentage points in the next two years.
Corporate tax will also be lowered to 9 percent next year from
19 percent for all companies regardless of income.
Gross average wages in Hungary rose by 6.7 percent in
January-September to 257,900 forints ($871) per month, based on
official statistics.
(Reporting Krisztina Than and Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Mark
Potter)
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