site.btaTrade Unions Warn of Social Dumping in Mining and Processing Industry

Trade Unions Warn of Social Dumping in Mining and Processing Industry

Sofia, November 2 (BTA) - The influential Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) warn of social dumping in the mining and processing industries in Bulgaria and said that employers are keeping wages too low for the levels of productivity that are comparable with the rest of the EU countries. The CITUB analysis was made public Wednesday by the director of the CITUB-affiliated Institute of Social and Trade Union Studies, Lyuben Tomev.

Tomev showed a comparison between the productivity and wages in Bulgaria and across Europe, showing that Bulgaria is among the six European countries where the mining industry has the biggest importance for the national economy.

Bulgaria is also among the leading European countries in terms of employment in the mining industry. A total of 23,400 people are employed in this sector here.

The gap between the pay in the mining industry in Bulgaria and in most of the other new EU member states in nominal terms is between 50 and 80 per cent - and soars to ten times in comparison with the old member states.

The average wage in the extracting industry in Bulgaria in 2015 was 697 euro against 3,889 euro in Spain, 1,325 euro in Estonia, 925 euro in Hungary and 1,169 euro in the Czech Republic.

In terms of profitability, Bulgaria places among the leading EU countries with 31.7 per cent against a EU average of 21.7 per cent.

The situation is similar in the processing industry. Bulgaria has economic growth in labour productivity of 185.7 per cent against a European average of 143 per cent. At the same time wages are considerably behind the other European countries.

The average wage in the processing industry in Bulgaria is 395 euro against 3,681 euro in Ireland, 2,211 euro in Spain, 1,035 euro in Estonia and 857 euro in Hungary.

The workers in the coal mining industry will demand a wage increase between 8 and 10 per cent, said CITUB.

They warned that the low wages are causing a shortage of qualified labour.

The leader of the Metal Workers Federation with CITUB, Vassil Yanachkov, added that the low wages are largely contributing to the high profitability in the sector. In the metal industry, for example, the average wage last year was 1,227 leva but this figure is not to be taken at face value because it also includes the wages in the top management. "Only 5 per cent of the workers, which is only in the top management, draw wages that are decent by the EU standards," said he.