National protest if government fails to implement the agreements under the Pact for Economic and Social Development until 2009

The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) is preparing to stage a national protest if the government fails to implement the agreements under the Pact for Economic and Social Development until 2009, the union’s President Zhelyazko Hristov told a news conference. He presented the agreements under the Pact.

A single national code of wage formation in the real sector is to be signed in the first quarter of 2007. A real pay rise can be expected after sectoral negotiations start in the second quarter, the trade union representatives said. The wage index will be formed on the basis of inflation and labour productivity in 2006. CITUB expects the wage index to be a two-digit figure, Hristov said.

It is cynical to forecast that Bulgaria will reach the European wage levels in 2230, the CITUB representatives said. The priorities about which the union wants to negotiate with the government this year include increasing the tax threshold, streamlining the mechanism for calculation of the pension maximum and regulating the constitutional rights of seasonal workers. The union is opposed to an ordinance regulating the payroll funds of companies held over 50 per cent by the State.

CITUB insists that a working group be set up with the Labour and Social Policy Ministry by June, which should regulate the constitutional right to strike in Bulgaria.

The first report on the Pact’s implementation is due at the end of March, the trade unionists said.

BTA