Hungarians protest against 'slave law' overtime rules

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS DECEMBER 8, 2018 / 7:40 AM / UPDATED 7 HOURS AGO

Hungarians protest against 'slave law' overtime rules

Marton Dunai, Bernadett Szabo
3 MIN READ

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest on Saturday against a proposed new labor law that allows employers to ask for up to 400 hours of overtime work per year, a move its critics have billed as the “slave law”.

Members of trade unions and their supporters gathered under gray winter skies and marched waving banners like “we protest against the slave law” and “force your mother to do overtime”.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has ruffled feathers in Europe and built a system his critics see as autocratic, forcing his will on business, academia, the courts and the media, but he has rarely angered large voter groups at once.

The last move that struck a nerve with so many people that it forced Orban to backtrack was a planned tax on internet data traffic, abandoned in late 2014 after tens of thousands marched against it.

The modification to the labor code submitted to Parliament this week has faced intense criticism, sparking the biggest street protest in over a year. Potentially, it could add two extra hours to an average work day, or the equivalent of an extra workday per week.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-protest/hungarians-protest-against-slave-law-overtime-rules-idUSKBN1O70FM

[CrispyQ]

1. That's 8 hours a week! And entire work day every week!

Leisure time is for the 1%.