site.btaRedundant Miners Meet with Ombudsman over New Retirement Rules

Kyustendil, Southwestern Bulgaria, December 23 (BTA) -  Some 40 miners who have been made redundant recently, met with National Ombudsman Maya Manolova on Saturday to discuss new retirement rules which deprive them of the right to early retirement.

Manolova explained for the press that the changed rules were pushed through by revisions to the Public Social Insurance Budget and to the transitional and final provisions of the Labour Code, adopted in late November.

Before the changes, miners were able to go into retirement after having earned the required number of points (90), having been made redundant and having 45 years of age or over. After the changes, they will have to wait to turn 60 to retire.

According to the miners, the change affects over 500 miners from the Bobov Dol mines alone.

The miners threaten protests outside Parlliament unless the old rules are reinstated.

Manolova commented that neither the unions nor MPs of any political party paid any attention to this provision when it was put to the vote in Parliament. "It just slipped through," she said.

She also said that people got robbed of their rights for Christmas without any prior notice.

Manolova has contacted the Labour Minister and the President of the National Social Insurance Institute (NSII), and is meeting with the NSII President on December 28 in the presence of representatives of the miners. She has vowed to prepare new legislative text and will try to lobby support among the MPs from constituencies with mining industry.

"There is nothing other than early retirement to compensate for a job where you work underground for 600 leva a month, under difficult and high-risk conditions and nothing to offset the hard physical work," the Ombudsman said.