Warning strike and lock-out at Paks Nuclear Power Plant

A two-hour warning strike was staged in May 2008 at Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, near the central town of Paks. The strike was held by employees of Dekoten, a company to which the power plant had outsourced cleaning and gardening activities, and was attributed to the failure to conclude a new collective agreement. Following the strike, negotiations continued with the involvement of a professional mediator, and a new agreement was expected in September 2008.

Background to conflict

Dekoten is a private company operating on the premises of Paks Nuclear Power Plant (Paksi Atomerőmű, PA) in central Hungary; it carries out industrial cleaning and gardening work. In December 2007, Dekoten unilaterally terminated its collective agreement with PA, which is the only nuclear power plant in Hungary and is located just outside the town of Paks. Dekoten’s Managing Director, Mihály Tóth, explained that the agreement’s termination was crucial in order to maintain competitiveness and secure employment. However, the employee side rejects this explanation, as the four-year contract between PA and Dekoten includes indexation of service fees. In the absence of a collective agreement, the trade unions will not be able to monitor working conditions and will not have a say regarding pay increases. The terminated agreement was valid until the end of June 2008 and stipulates that, in case of its termination, negotiations should be held with a view to concluding a new agreement.

Most of the employees at Dekoten earn the national minimum wage, which amounts to a monthly sum of HUF 69,000 (€288 as at 12 September 2008); they have never been employees of PA. Originally, the workers were represented by a small trade union, the Dekoten Workers’ Council (Dekoten Munkástanács), affiliated to the Democratic League of Independent Trade Unions (Független Szakszervezetek Demokratikus Ligája, LIGA). However, about 120 employees joined the Trade Union of Paks Nuclear Power Plant Employees (Paksi Atomerőmű Dolgozóinak Szakszervezete, PADOSZ), affiliated to the Trade Union Federation of Electricity Workers (Villamosenergia-ipari Dolgozók Szakszervezeti Szövetsége, VD).

With the recent merger of LIGA and VD (HU0710029I), PADOSZ became involved in collective bargaining at Dekoten; this trade union holds far more bargaining power, due to its presence at a large company of strategic importance. However, the development was not welcomed by Mr Tóth, who considered that ‘PADOSZ misled the employees and intervened in issues which were the prerogative of the company’. He emphasised that otherwise Dekoten was ready to continue with the negotiations but was not in a position to make promises in the absence of financial coverage.

Strike and lock-out

As Dekoten rejected the claims of the trade unions for pay increases and company welfare allowances, no progress was possible in the negotiations. Therefore, PADOSZ staged a two-hour warning strike on 20 May 2008. Given the service activity of Dekoten, the strike did not jeopardise the direct output of the power plant. According to the President of PADOSZ, László Lőrincz, 126 out of 200 employees joined the strike. On the day of the protest, the management at Dekoten compelled those joining the strike to work overtime; moreover, it threatened the striking workers that they would be dismissed on extraordinary notice, which is illegal.

PA demanded that about 100 striking workers leave the premises of the plant. However, PADOSZ used the publicity of the lock-out and held a press conference outside the plant. Mr Lőrincz condemned the ‘humiliating and degrading’ practice of a lock-out, adding at the same time that the trade union had no dispute with the management of the power plant but with Dekoten’s management. It is worth noting that lock-outs are rare in Hungary and are not regulated by law.

LIGA, to which PADOSZ is now affiliated, called on the employer as well as the owner to initiate dialogue with the employees in search of solutions which would lead to ‘orderly industrial relations’ and fair remuneration. This was the main message of the letter by the President of LIGA, István Gaskó, which Mr Lőrincz read to the striking workers.

Mediation and negotiations for new agreement

On the day after the strike, PADOSZ was able to convince Dekoten to jointly call in a professional mediator from the Labour Mediation and Arbitration Service (Munkaügyi Közvetítői és Döntőbirói Szolgálat, MKDSZ). Several rounds of negotiations were held with the mediator, with limited success, and the negotiating parties failed to conclude an agreement by the 30 June deadline. Instead, they signed a temporary agreement, in which Dekoten guaranteed that it would provide employees with the same extra-wage allowances as was stipulated by the previous agreement. Further negotiations were envisaged to finalise the new agreement by 15 September.

Commentary

Dekoten was therefore able to avoid an immediate wage increase, while it made only vague promises with respect to pay rises for the rest of the year. Nevertheless, the trade unions were satisfied with this solution, as they were able to preserve the collective bargaining relationship at the company. Moreover, due to the conflict, PADOSZ’s membership at Dekoten increased by a further 20 employees.

Máté Komiljovics and László Neumann, Institute for Political Science, Hungarian Academy of Sciences