Hungary fin minister says rail strike "unfounded"

BUDAPEST Dec 16 (Reuters) - Hungary's finance minister said a two-day-old strike over pay by state railway workers, which caused severe disruptions on most services on Tuesday, was unfounded and their demands could not be met.

Railway workers' union VDSZSZ began a nationwide strike on Sunday to demand a 10 percent wage rise for outsourced employees and a one-off bonus of 250,000 forints ($1,267) for each worker from the sale of state railway firm MAV's freight unit.

Hungary's government sold MAV Cargo to Rail Cargo Austria earlier this year in a privatisation deal worth 102.5 billion forints.

"To demand 250,000 forints (for each worker) is unrealistic, this money cannot be paid by the government, there is no point to go on strike for this," Finance Minister Janos Veres told public television channel m1 on Tuesday.

"I am very sorry that citizens wishing to travel have to be subjected to a strike of representatives of meaningless thoughts. I think the conditions they demand are unfounded and they just cannot win."

Earlier on Tuesday MAV said in a statement rail service on most lines remained unpredictable. It said coach replacement services were running on some lines as express and intercity rail services were still not available.

News agency MTI reported that MAV failed to reach an agreement with striking unions at a meeting on Tuesday morning. It said talks were expected to resume later in the day.

Separately, a strike by two unions at Budapest Airport, a unit of Germany's Hochtief (HOTG.DE), entered its seventh day on Tuesday. The unions started the action for improved labour conditions, a new collective agreement and a halt to layoffs.

The airport operator said on its website both departing and arriving flights were running on time. It said no cancellations were expected apart from four flights scrapped by Hungarian airline Malev earlier.

On Monday Budapest Airport said it employed workers from other member states of the European Union to ensure smooth operation of passenger security controls.

In a statement, the unions said on Tuesday Budapest Airport employed foreign blacklegs to circumvent striking employees.

(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs)