site.btaLaid-off Miners Block Road to Demand Due Wages, Compensations

Laid-off Miners Block Road to Demand Due Wages, Compensations

Bobov Dol, Western Bulgaria, January 19 (BTA) - Miners who in December were laid of from the Bobov Dol mines staged a protest rally on Thursday to demand the payment of back wages, compensations and food vouchers. The miners do not accept the decision of the management to pay the due amounts in instalments by the middle of the year. The protesters blocked the road between Kyustendil and Doupnitsa.

Newly appointed executive director Haralampi Zlatanov told the protesters that a schedule to pay the due amount will be prepared by January 27 but his words were booed.

Speaking to a BTA reporter Zlatanov said that the management of the mines has decided to close the Babino open pit on account of its poor financial state. Plant and equipment is being dismantled at the moment, but no work is done to open a new section, as had been decided in previous miner protests. About 400 people will be laid off, mostly people nearing retirement.

Zlatanov said that large-scale lay-offs were carried out in December, which is the reason for the huge amounts due in compensations. For November alone, 63,000 leva are due. The company is unable to pay this as a lump sum, so that it has asked for a rescheduled payment, but the miners disagreed, Zlatanov said.

The protesting miners said they will resume their action at ten o'clock on Friday.