Regional Project on Labour Relations and Social Dialogue Annual Review 2013 Warsaw in December 2013 Hungary – Labour Relations and Social Dialogue Author: Ildikó Krén 1 Executive Summary As well as in former years Hungary is experiencing difficult times in 2013. An authoritarian government stabi­lizes its political power, the political left wing opposition is divided, the economic situation for many house­holds worsened, the industries’ performance have not increased and the actors of social partnership are facing a continuously deregulation of labour relation. In the beginning of 2013, there was a strong pressure on the government by European institutions because of the lack democratic guaranties, but also because of the economic and financial instability. There was a dispute with the IMF because of delayed or discontinued negotiations. The government reacted with a nationalistic rhetoric and symbolic mobilization of people sup­porting their politics. The trade union movement is undergoing a process of reorganization and reinvention. The financial situation of most of them got difficult because of reduced access to state funding. Only two of them realize an increasing financial power. Both of them have good access to government, anyway, but that might have no effect on the financial support. Three union confederations announced a merger in spring 2013 to be realized in winter 2013. Employer organizations are facing a decrease in members, as the labour law introduced in 2012 has no incentives provided, which would give an additional advantage being affiliated to a social partners organisation. There are some weaker reorganizational processes visible but without re­markable results yet. 1 Ildikó Krén was born in Germany(1963) and is EU-project and labour relation professional. She holds an M.A. in Political Science from Hannover University and did MBA Courses at University of Economics in Bu­dapest. 1994 to 1999 project management at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Hungary, Foundation of her company “Solution4.org” in 1999. From 2001 to 2005 she prepared Central and Eastern European branch trade un­ions to join the European Union as head of European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions´ regional office in Budapest. 2006 to 2010 Coordinator of IUF Global Organising Project for multina­tional companies. 2010 Hungarian correspondent of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in Europe(Eurofound). 1