To read the revised action plan of the committee for 2010 please click here.
Priorities
Appoint contacts and organize regular exchange of information with other committees to assess specific labour/education oriented issues within the respective bodies, to be discussed during the meetings of the Labour and Education Committee. The committee should understand what are the areas where its opinion can be of support to the other committees (and include the necessary actions in its program), and what kind of support can the committee expect from the other committees.
Continue to be engaged in an active dialogue with the Ministry of Labor, participating in the review of new labor market regulations and representing the interests of the AmCham membership.
Emphasize and document that AmCham and its member companies offer a major contribution to innovation in Hungary, thereby representing a major opportunity to increase the competitiveness of the country:
- by introducing the most up-to-date technologies and management processes,
- by creating a well-trained and competitive work force,
- by participating in research and development activities.
Organize exchange of best practices between AmCham member companies on how to minimize the negative impact of the recession on employment; help to develop new ideas; use AmCham’s momentum to escalate issues and proposals to the appropriate levels.
Achievements since January 2009
1. Committee members participated in the work of several other committees (HR Committee, IT committee, Energy and Environment Committee, Electronic Manufacturiers’ Committee, thereby increasing synergy between Committees.
2. The committee, with the help and support of the HR Committee, organized several meetings related to existing problems of the present Hungarian Labor Code. An important event took place in October, with close to a hundred participants, including representatives of the Trade Unions, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs , the Ministry of Finance, the British and German Chambers of Commerce the Joint Venture Association and the Hungarian Outsourcing Association. As a follow-up of this event, a series of workshop meetings are being organized with the most important stakeholders to speed up the process of legislation to reform the existing Labor Code.
3. The Committee provided support to other AmCham companies like GE or a number of Electronic Manufacturing companies regarding problems and issues connected to labor and education areas, including a presentation before the Committee for Labor and Employment of the Hungarian Parliament.
4. As a new initiative of AmCham, the committee organized a series of exclusive discussions called “AmCham Career School”. The series soon became extremely popular, the number of participants exceeding expectations. Exciting and educational presentations were held by successful and well-known business people: Dr. Gusztáv Bienerth, President of AmCham; József Tarsoly, General Manager, Coca-Cola HBC (Hungary); Michael Colicchio, Managing Director, Celanese Hungary Kft.; András Sugár, former CEO, T-Mobile and Gábor Kovács, CEO, Bankár Holding and owner, KOGART House.
Based on the good feedback the Committee will launch the second series in 2010.
5. Celanese management started a project to improve the level of Business English education in Hungary. Other AmCham companies already engaged in similar activities (GE, HP, Cisco) decided to join. At this point in time the project is broadening into a wider context, aimed at drawing awareness that knowledge of foreign languages (English in the first place) is a most important pillar of the competitiveness of Hungary.
6. Contacts with two of the leading Hungarian universities (ELTE and BMGE) were established at rector levels followed by meetings with different chairs of the respective universities.
Projects
Language Learning Movement To read about the Language Movement, please scroll down to the related documents part of this page.
