The government called the Ministry of Justice to prepare a proposal for a substantial salary increase for all judges, in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and the National Office for the Judiciary (NOJ) - announced the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office on 13 December 2018. At this week’s Government Info, Gergely Gulyás called the current judicial salaries unworthy and said that the Cabinet intends to introduce a new wage bill by January 1, 2020 at the latest.

The main problem according to the head of the ministry is that Hungarian judges belong to Europe’s top in terms of performance, but they are at the bottom line in terms of  salary, and this has not been significantly changed by the three times 5% wage increase of recent years. 

It is well-known that the NOJ has been urging the reform of the judicial remuneration system since its foundation, and has also produced several professional materials, plans and analysis. The President of the NOJ last turned to the Ministry of Justice in October to initiate the establishment of a joint committee of experts. The task of the committee is to prepare the amendment of the Act on the Status and Remuneration of Judges (Bjt.).

Based on the concept approved by the Court Presidency, the NOJ prepared a detailed draft amendment of the law with legal reasoning. This would fundamentally change the system of determining the remuneration of the judiciary and would ensure on a long-term basis judicial wages that reflect the dignity of the judicial profession as well as the performance of the judiciary.