Visual Europe Group (VEG), which is majority owned by Gyula Balásy, has announced a collective downsizing – Telex has learned from several independent sources. According to Opten, 186 people work at the main company of the group. We know that the company’s management announced the downsizing to the employees in an email. They wrote that the current situation presented the company with challenges “to which we must respond as responsible leaders”. We understand that the company’s managing director, Szabolcs Botond, shared the details of the downsizing with the employees in a video.
Previously, several employees working for the Lounge group or its subcontractors wrote letters to Telex stating that they would not receive wages due to the blocking of the company’s accounts, or that they were threatened with downsizing. We know that even at VEG there is a problem with the payment of subcontractors, last month they were paid with a delay of 10-15 days, in some cases even longer. We sent questions to the press department of the Visual Europe Group several times this week, but we received no response to our inquiries.
After the publication of our article, the Lounge Group indicated that no final decision had been made to lay off the employees. The companies only notified the authorities of the group downsizing procedure required by law. This is a mandatory, preliminary procedure, the purpose of which is to manage possible operational scenarios related to the changing economic and business environment.
“The announcement of collective downsizing is not the same as the dismissal of employees, nor does it mean that the companies want to get rid of all the employees involved. Based on the current regulations, the employer has 30 days after the start of the procedure to finalize the process, during which time he will review the number of employees, the affected jobs and further operational options. The company’s goal is still not to dismiss employees en masse, but to adapt to the changed environment creating an adaptable, sustainable operating model and preserving as many jobs as possible.”
We also wrote this week that for now they don’t get it employees of the Lounge Group received their salary for May, as the accounts of Gyula Balásy’s company group were blocked. A company called Balásy Lounge Event Kft essentially monopolized it the event organization market of state institutions and companies, so everyone who worked at state events, conferences, and exhibitions had to contract with him.
However, after NAV blocked Lounge’s accounts, the subcontractors are not paid for the work already completed, and those involved do not know whether they will receive what they are due for the ongoing projects.
Meanwhile, the Association of Hungarian Event Organizers and Service Providers in an open letter he called out Gyulat Balásy to pay the employees and subcontractors who do not receive money because the Lounge Group’s bank accounts have been blocked from his own assets.
Gyula Balásy at the beginning of May he talked about it in a memorable interview with Kontrollthat he did not want to leave the country and announced that he would hand over his assets to the state. Shortly after the interview, chaotic conditions prevailed at the companies of the Lounge group. At the end of May, a small company working on the BL final and a bunch of state events got into troubleas Lounge Event accounts have been blocked. The government finally decided he pays the subcontractors so that the match can go down properly. A few days later, the Special Tax and Customs Directorate of NAV filed against the company also started executionearlier so did New Land Media and Lounge Design.
We clarified our article after the Lounge Group’s letter.
