site.btaDeputy PM Karadjov: Amounts Due to Avtomagistrali Cherno More to Be Settled Short-term

MPs of the ruling coalition submitted a draft resolution to the National Assembly that will allow the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) to partially settle the amounts owed to road construction companies under contracts for repair and maintenance services on the national road network. Thus, road construction companies, including the Avtomagistrali Cherno More company, will receive in short term 50 per cent of the amounts due, Deputy Prime Minister and Regional Development and Public Works Minister Grozdan Karadjov said after a meeting with Avtomagistrali representatives here on Wednesday.

Workers of the Avtomagistrali Cherno More company have been staging protests for several months now. The company’s employees are dissatisfied with the State who owes them 27.6 million leva for repairs of a section of Trakia motorway.

Karadjov said that the payment of the amounts due was delayed for legal reasons. The draft resolution is a decision in principle that applies to all road construction companies to whom funds are due, he added.

The remaining 50 per cent of the amounts due can be paid once the commission revising all contracts for repair and maintenance services, issues an interim report. "If Avtomagistrali Cherno More features in the report, the remaining sum on which the commission advises us, will be paid," Karadjov pointed out.

Nastimir Ananiev, Chair of the parliamentary Committee on Regional Policy, Public Works and Local Self-Government, stressed that if approved by the National Assembly, the draft resolution will allow the Council of Ministers to take decisions. It is important to settle this case as the entire road infrastructure and road safety depend on it, he said.

Karadjov noted that the National Assembly’s approval will give RIA the opportunity to complete the work already in progress on roads and other construction sites that must be completed before the start of the summer season.

Petya Stoyanova, а Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CITUB) representative at Avtomagistrali Cherno More, stated that the protesting employees will be acquainted with the information provided at the meeting. They will decide whether to stage further protests until they receive the full sum they are owed. “Our primary objective is preserving the jobs,” she said.

The Avtomagistrali Cherno More construction company has 750 to 1,000 employees. Some 80 per cent of them are CITUB members.