Social Minister urges social partners to prioritize vocational training

According to Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova, it is the duty of social partners to prioritize matters of vocational training and education in Bulgaria. "It is only with prepared staff that we shall be competitive and shall implement European policies on the labour market in Bulgaria and the European social model," Maslarova said Monday at a conference on the European social model organized by the Economic and Social Council.

In the words of the Deputy prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin, the time over which Bulgaria will reduce the differences in economic and social development with the average ones in the European Union will not be short. Kalfin noted that extreme expectations among Bulgarian citizens concerning EU membership and added that the life of people in this country will not change radically after january 1, 2007. What will change radically, though, are the opportunities for progress - free movement and access to the labour market.

Kalfin also said there is work to be done to provide Bulgarian citizens with income levels and a social package comparable to the other European countries. Prices in Bulgaria are 55-58 per cent of average price levels in EU countries, while at the same time the prices of goods and services in the so-called small basket are absolutely liberalized and some of them are very high, Kalfin said, adding that Bulgarians receive 34-35 per cent of average EU incomes.

According to Podkrepa Confederation of Labour Dimiter Manolov, the thesis that Bulgarians may threaten the security of the European labour market is absurd. He supported his position with data from the latest survey of Gallup International for the Social Ministry concerning emigration attitudes of Bulgarians, which shows that some 45,000 Bulgarians are preparing to work in Europe.

Manolov said these 45,000 are a mere 0.0002 per cent of employees in EU member-countries. National Statistical Institute data show that the total number of employed Bulgarians stands at 3 million, or a mere 0.015 per cent of all individuals employed on the European labour market, he added. Should one assume that the leading motive behind the labour migration of Bulgarians is their relatively very low income, one should not forget the fact that more than 90 per cent of Bulgarians have their own home unlike the rest of Europeans, Manolov said, adding that this means available income in Bulgaria, albeit at lower pay.

The main problem facing Bulgarian society is to what extent our workforce is competitive and able to integrate into the European labour market, not to cause the so-called social dumping.

In turn, the leader of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria Zhelyazko Hristov said the situation related to the quality of workforce in Bulgaria is concerning. Only one per cent of the employed workers in Bulgaria are included in training courses in their lifetime as compared to an average EU level of 11 per cent.

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev has ordered a working group to prepare a report on Bulgaria’s migration policy, complete with concrete measures, Deputy Prime Minister Ivailo Kalfin said. The working group has to assess what the policy for employment of foreign workers in Bulgaria will be. One variant is complete opening of this country’s market, but that is not economically or socially profitable, Kalfin said. Another variant is for staff with certain specialties to be allowed on the Bulgarian market as, for example, the Czech Republic did on the matter of Bulgarian computer specialists. A third variant is the existence of an administrative procedure for admission of foreign workforce, he added.

BTA