site.btaGeodesy Agency Staff Across Bulgaria Hold Warning Strike for Higher Pay

Employees of the Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Agency (GCCA) and its offices across Bulgaria held a warning strike on Wednesday demanding higher pay. They want the resources for salaries to be increased by at least 20% as of October.

According to estimates of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour, to that end the Council of Ministers should decree the allocation of BGN 600,000.

Podkrepa notes that the GCCA employees are highly qualified specialists - engineers and geodesists - whose work concerns all Bulgarians directly and is at the basis of property management and an effective real estate market. That is why their gross pay of under BGN 1,000 is inacceptable, the trade union argues.

GCCA Sofia office head Momchil Terziyski told reporters that the GCCA generates over BGN 20 million in revenue for the Exchequer. Part of its employees receive net pay close to the minimum working wage (BGN 710) and another part have gross salaries of around BGN 1,000. 

The GCCA provides more than 700,000 services a year, or over 5,000 services per employee, Terziyski said, describing that as high workload. 

Kremena Atanassova of Podkrepa said some 400 people work at the GCCA instead of the 600 required. In her words, the protesters have tried to convince the power holders of the need to pay these specialists adequately but to no effect thus far. 

Unless their demands are met, the GCCA staff will suspend work and go on indefinite strike.