Continental Tobacco Corp., one of the largest employers in Sátoraljaújhely with more than 500 employees, has distributed a total of HUF 214 million gross in rewards to its employees as a result of its traditional performance appraisal process. The company, which owns the tobacco factory in Sátoraljaújhely, also implemented its annual salary increase, which resulted in a 17 percent increase in the wages of its employees and a 10 percent increase in the amount of the cafeteria allowance.

Continental Tobacco Group, a major player in the Hungarian tobacco industry, has been using a performance management system at its tobacco factory in Sátoraljaújhely for 15 years. The system has been developed with the principle of objectivity in mind, and the company has included in the system not only the corporate goals but also the goals of the individual areas and individual targets, and competence is also emphasised in the evaluation.

Following this year’s performance appraisals, the company distributed a total of around HUF 214 million gross in bonuses to 420 employees working in the tobacco factory and expansion plants, equivalent to around 120% of their monthly allowance on average. The amount was in addition to the Christmas bonus paid to all employees at the end of last year.

At the same time, in line with its annual practice, Continental Tobacco Corp. also implemented a wage increase, as a result of which the basic salary of its employees rose by 17 percent and the amount of the cafeteria allowance available for use by 10 percent. While the former took effect from 1 March, the latter from the beginning of the year. The details of the pay increase were worked out in agreement with the Works Council and the employees’ trade union.

According to Csaba Füzi, the company’s CEO, the company has passed several milestones covering different aspects of their activities this year: while the purchase of the industrial land was to expand warehouse capacity, and the increase in the tobacco purchase base price was to help the situation of domestic tobacco production, the performance management system and the wage increase are essential for their employees. He emphasized that he considers it important that in an uncertain economic situation such as the current one, they should stand by their workers more strongly than usual.