site.btaIrrigation Systems Workers in Several Towns Protest over Unpaid Wages

Irrigation Systems Workers
in Several Towns Protest
over Unpaid Wages


Turgovishte, Northeastern Bulgaria, September 3 (BTA) - Workers
of the state-run Irrigation Systems company in Turgovishte
staged a one-hour protest on Wednesday morning, claiming wages
and social security contributions unpaid since June, said Elena
Andonova, leader of the local chapter of the Confederation of
Independent Trade Unions.

Andonova said the company's subsidiary in Turgovishte has a
workforce of nearly 60 people, out of more than 180 working in
the Lower Danube branch which comprises the city of Rousse.

Protests were staged by workers in Vidin, Vratsa, Montana and
Rousse, said Andonova, adding that the company owes over 3.5
million leva in back wages and social security contributions.
The protestors demand payment by the end of September, or else
they will stage a national protest in front of the Agriculture
Ministry.

Irrigation Systems workers in Vratsa adopted a declaration to
the Agriculture Ministry, the regional governor and the local
government, saying that the company's Mizia branch maintains
without any accidents large, complex facilities in Northwestern
Bulgaria, including the levees on the Danube near the Kozloduy
Nuclear Power Plant. Still, the workers have not been paid wages
 since May.

Ivo Danailov, head engineer of the Vratsa subsidiary, said the
company's workers were the first to act when Mizia and several
villages were flooded by the Skut River in early August,
although the dams and river levees are owned by the
municipalities and the State, not by Irrigation Systems.
Danailov said: "We did it because we are the only company with
water engineers and it is our duty, although we have not been
paid wages for three months." SN/DD

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