site.btaUPDATED Government, Unions, Employers Discuss Minimum Wage

A bill to amend and supplement the Labour Code, moved by the BSP for Bulgaria parliamentary group, was discussed at the start of an extraordinary meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC) on Tuesday. The meeting of the government, unions and employer organizations was opened by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Policy Lazar Lazarov.

The bill proposes that the minimum wage in Bulgaria for a given year should be set by October 31 of the previous year and should be no less than 50% of the average gross wage in the previous 12 months. BSP for Bulgaria insists on increasing the minimum wage to BGN 850 per month from the current BGN 710. The trade unions want an increase too.

Among the employer organizations, the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association objected to raising the minimum wage. The Bulgarian Industrial Association is firmly opposed to the Socialists' idea about how the minimum wage should be updated.

"Agreement on the minimum wage can never be reached with the employers," said the President of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour, Dimitar Manolov. He commented that the bill sponsored by BSP for Bulgaria will make it possible to implement the European Parliament Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages in the EU. "Podkrepa supports the bill", Manolov stated.

The other major trade union amalgamation in the country, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, also backed the Socialists' bill.

Minister Lazarov said the matters addressed in the directive need further discussion.

Deputy Labour and Social Policy Minister Emil Mingov said his ministry favours the establishment of a mechanism to guarantee an adequate minimum wage in Bulgaria in keeping with the European directive, but this cannot be achieved in the way proposed by BSP for Bulgaria.

The Finance Ministry also disapproves of the bill.

Six bills were on the agenda of NCTC's extraordinary meeting. They include a motion to update pensions.

Speaking after the NCTC's meeting, CITUB National Secretary Velichka Mikova said that participants did not reach an agreement on the bill proposed by BSP for Bulgaria. 

CITUB and Podkrepa back the bill provided that the period for calculating the minimum wage includes the first six months of the current year, said Mikova. She said that the bill is the first step to introducing the EU minimum wage directive.

Mikova confirmed that the employer organizations do not accept the approach, set out in the bill for fixing the minimum wage.

Tuesday's meeting discussed bills to amend the Social Insurance Code in connection with pension adjustment and eligibility, which also failed to draw consensus.