To date, not a single euro has arrived from Brussels for the pay rise of teachers and kindergarten educators who have already received their wage hikes in January, February, March and April, which came from the domestic budget, the state secretary explained. The European Commission's guarantee in early January for the disbursement of teachers' wage hikes was all in vain, because
even though the summer vacation is almost here, no payments have been made so far,
Mr Retvari emphasized. Brussels is already controlling funds that it's never transferred, he pointed out. Although no funds have been dispatched from the Belgian capital, auditors have, he added.
EU inspectors have been investigating for months, looking at individual bank transfers related to how teachers' pay rise in Hungary has been implemented. They're investigating the use of a resource that Brussels has not even transferred, Mr Retvari wrote. They're spending their energy not on securing the funds, but on scrutinizing teachers, he added.
They are requesting large quantities of appointment documents and employment contracts for review, and once they received these, they're also checking many teachers' degrees. They also run checks on KRETA messages to see "whether teachers have been informed with the right visual elements that their pay rise is partly financed by EU funds", state secretary Retvari explained.
However, in reality, not a single euro has arrived,
– he emphasized. So, perhaps it's not without reason that people have the feeling that Brussels is constantly looking for ways to find fault and use it as an excuse to block the pay rise for both teachers and early childhood educators, he stated. He stressed that while EU bureaucrats are merely investigating, the government decided to act. He recalled that
the salaries of teachers and kindergarten educators rose by 10-10 percent in both 2022 and 2023, and by an average of 32.2 percent this year, while next year they are scheduled to rise by 21 percent. This is a 93.5-percent increase, meaning that teachers' salaries has nearly doubled in four years.
In state-run schools, the average salary of teachers rose to 652,000 forints, while school directors' average wage increased to one million forints. Mr Retvari also pointed out that "the left has launched an attack against the teachers' pay rise in Brussels as well, and has filed a lawsuit to prevent the funds from being utilized".
Finally, he called it a disgrace that Hungarian left-wing MEPs in the European Parliament were working not for Hungarian teachers, but against them. "They are even proud of the damage they are doing to Hungary. Change is needed in Brussels!" - State Secretary Bence Retvari emphasized in his statement.
