site.btaCITUB Slams Employers' Proposal for Expanding List of Occupations Where Import of Specialits Is Allowed

CITUB Slams Employers' Proposal for Expanding List of Occupations Where Import of Specialits Is Allowed

Sofia, January 31 (BTA) - The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) slammed Tuesday proposals by the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (KRIB) and the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria (AICB) to expand the list of occupations for which specialists can be "imported" from abroad without testing the market to see if Bulgarian experts are available.

For years now, Bulgarian employers have been complaining of a mismatch between the labour market needs and the education system. The shortage of qualified specialists is worst in the IT sector and engineering.

The CITUB Executive Committee said if the proposals of the employers go through, a door will be opened wide for workers from third countries for 176 occupations in various branches of the economy.

This will place Bulgarian - and all European citizens - in a disadvantaged position.

According to CITUB, Bulgaria has enough specialists but because of the low salaries they do not work according to their qualification or seek employment abroad where they receive higher pay.

The evidence is in the job centre registers which currently feature 1,008 unemployed Bulgarian engineers.

Eight Bulgarian universities teach programmes in areas where the employers seek to hire foreigners. These universities have admitted 500 students for the 2016/2017 academic year and nearly 280 will graduate.

In addition to that, over 2,500 young people aged between 16 and 18 took training at software schools and academies last year.

CITUB argues that the proposals of KRIB and AICB are ill-grounded and will not bring about improving the situation on the Bulgarian labour market.