site.btaAvtomagistrali Cherno More Construction Company to Lay Off 70% of Staff

The Avtomagistrali Cherno More road construction company of Shumen (Northeastern Bulgaria) is starting to lay off 530 employees, about 70 per cent of its staff, on Monday. It can no longer pay wages and social and health insurance contributions because the Road Infrastructure Agency owes it 27.6 million leva for repairs of a section of Trakia Motorway.

The employees who will be laid off include engineers, machine operators and constructions workers. "To date, the company owes wages for December and January, and those for February are also becoming due. The sum for three months' wages is 4.5 million leva. Nothing has been done in spite of our calls for urgent measures," the company said.

Avtomagistrali Cherno More has tried in vain to contact state representatives.

The company employees are planning to stage a protest action in Sofia on March 22 to defend their right to work and pay.