site.btaPrison Job Cuts Won't Save Money but Will Put a Strain on Staff

Prison Job Cuts Won't  Save Money but Will Put a Strain on Staff

Sliven, Eastern Bulgaria, July 20 (BTA) - Job cuts in the
prisons will not save money but will put a strain on the
remaining employees, Ivan Petrov, President of the Trade Union
of Prison Employees, said ihere.

He recalled that a government decree of January plans 456 job
cuts in the Implementation of Punishments Directorate General on
 the grounds of a money shortage and an effort to streamline the
 public administration.

Petrov said that downsizing would not result in economies
because of the severance pay to employees, and would increase
the work load of the remaining staff. He argued that the
Directorate General was not financed adequately by the Finance
Ministry.

He criticized the poor prison conditions suffered by both
inmates and employees. "A mere 1.5 million leva are allocated
annually for repairs at 14 prisons and 28 regional services for
implementation of punishments with nearly 40 custody centres.
Many prisons were built early in the 20th century," said Petrov,
 adding that the State pays damages awarded by the European
Court of Human Rights to prisoners who win cases for bad prison
conditions. In addition, about 12 million leva are owed for
prison maintenance.

Besides, in about five years prison guards have won nearly 500
cases for unpaid overtime or wrongly recorded overtime, for
which they are owed over 4 million leva.

The trade union leader called against job cuts among guards,
people working with prisoners and detainees at police custody
centres, medical staff and social workers. The union has managed
 to negotiate an approach where job cuts will be decided in
consultation with prison wardens and trade union
representatives.

Petrov said employees were not staging active protests during
the Directorate's negotiations with the Justice Ministry but
would do so if the agreements were broken.