site.btaTrade Union Demands Income Rises in 2023

Representatives of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) Wednesday urged Parliament to amend legislation so as to ensure higher incomes in 2023. The protesters brought a Christmas tree hung with notes spelling out their demands a day after the MPs voted on first reading to extend into 2023 the application of the 2022 State Budget Act and the budgets of the Public State Social Insurance and the National Health Insurance Fund.

The trade union calls for an increase in the minimum wage to BGN 850 from BGN 710 now and pay rises by at least 13% in the public sector and at least 20% for field workers.

CITUB Chief Economist Lyuboslav Kostov told BTA the MPs could amend the 2023 budget laws before the second reading vote with the union's proposals. He voiced concern that the impact of low incomes would make itself felt during the coming holidays: "We cannot afford buying the same goods and services at the current prices given the reduced purchasing power of money."

The protesters presented their demands to MPs arriving for the plenary sitting. Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Korneliya Ninova said the Socialist MPs had drawn up proposals similar to those of the trade union but it was not certain that the caretaker cabinet would accept them.