Union leaders are preparing for the first country-wide strike at Tesco stores in Hungary, which has unanimous support from workers, local media reported on September 4.

This is just the latest in a series of labour disputes, as unions seek to leverage the growing labour shortage to secure improved employment terms. Employers have failed to address massive worker shortages in many areas of the economy, including the retail sector, even though the minimum wage was raised by between 10% and  15% in January. 

Retail workers unions KDFSZ and KASZ have set the third or the fourth weekend of September for the work stoppage after last week’s wage talks failed to produce results.

Hungary’s largest retailer said talks were constructive, but unions are of the opinion that the company is playing for time.

The UK-based retailer is not planning to raise payroll numbers either, a key demand by unions, as the labour shortage is putting an unbearable workload on employees, according to reports by pro-government daily Magyar Idok.

Management is also not planning to go beyond wage hikes carried out already this year, which saw an average net HUF20,000 (€65) per month increase.

Tesco’s Hungarian unit raised the wages of some 13,700 employees this year by an average of 12.4%, the second year running it has effected a double-digit hike. In the past two years, the company has spent HUF7.4bn on wage hikes in Hungary, according to an earlier press release. Tesco proposed that unions return to the negotiating tables in November to discuss 2018 wages.