site.btaRoad Construction Workers Demand Higher Salaries, Temporarily Block Vitinya Tunnel Traffic

Road Infrastructure Agency staff participated Tuesday in the protest organized by the Confederation of Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) Roads branch in the vicinity of the Vitinya tunnel on Hemus motorway. A little after 2:00 pm, traffic both ways was stopped for about half an hour by the workers demanding salary raises, overtime pay and improved working conditions.

The protesters carried posters reading, among other things, "Inflation has eaten our salaries" and "Sick of being working poor". CITUB Vice President Todor Kapitanov was also at the protest, as were police guaranteeing its peaceful progress.

Salaries at the Road Infrastructure Agency are "humiliatingly low", below the average for the country, the head of the CITUB Road branch, Malina Kovandjieva, told journalists. The salaries have not been raised in the last 23 months, her deputy Dimitar Kotsev added.

The protesters chose representatives who went to meet the Chairman of the Agency Board Ventsislav Angelov.

Later on Tuesday, Kapitanov told BTA that the leadership of the Road Infrastructure Agency had undertaken to raise staff salaries by up to 20% as of January 1, 2023.