site.bta Interior Ministry Officers Confirm Protest Plans for November 4 over 2016 Budget, Protests Break Out on Tuesday

Interior Ministry Officers Confirm Protest Plans for November 4 over 2016 Budget, Protests Break Out on Tuesday

Sofia, November 3 (BTA) - The Interior Ministry officers
confirmed their plans to protest November 4 over the 2016 budget
 for the Ministry. This transpired from remarks for the press by
 Galentin Grozev, one of the union leaders at the Interior
Ministry, following a meeting with Finance Minister Vladislav
Goranov and Interior Minister Roumyana Buchvarova on Tuesday.

The meeting came right after the Finance Ministry made public
its plans for trimming some prerequisites available for Interior
 Ministry officers. These plans will be codified through the
national budget act which was approved by the government on
October 30. The part about the Interior Ministry budget was made
 public late on November 2. It says that the Interior Ministry
officers will not be paid extra for their years of service. They
 will be entitled to a
10-wage severance package - not 20 as at present, and the amount
 will not include the bonuses they get for work in specific work
 conditions. The paid leave entitlement drops to 20 days from 30
 days and the holiday allowance gets reduced. The additional pay
 for length of service is scrapped and the food allowance is
reduced to 80 leva, from the current 120 leva. 

The transitional and final provisions of the National Budget
Bill for 2016 make identical changes in the rules for financing
 the other departments and organizations in the security sector,
 including the Defence Ministry and the State Agency for
National Security.

The Trade Unions

The Interior Ministry trade union leader Grozev said that the
unions
were merely informed at the meeting with the two Ministers about
 the changes and the provisions in the 2016 national budget
bill. No agreement was reached. 

The Interior Ministry unions are hoping for a new meeting with
the leaders of the two Ministries on Friday and next Monday.
They will insist that the meeting be held in the  presence of
Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, said Grozev.

The trade unions expect the Finance Minister to
immediately pull out
his proposal and only after that  they will be ready for more
talks.

Grozev said that failing to inform the Interior Ministry
officers of the contemplated financial changes was a violation
of the law. "Reforms at the Interior Ministry should be made one
 step at a time to avoid social disturbances," he said.

Last week, the Trade Union Federation of Interior Ministry
Employees issued a statement saying that after a series of
"reforms" - the quotation marks used in original statement - the
 Interior Ministry and its employees are faced with the risk of
being unable to perform their duties. It went on to say that
this is exactly what happened with the Bulgarian armed forces
"after decades of painful and murderous reforms".

The estimates that 15-25 per cent of the staff in the security
sector are ready to quit may prove optimistic, head of the Trade
 Union Federation of Interior Ministry Employees Valentin Popov
told a news conference held in the building of the Podkrepa
Labour Confederation. Popov said that even in the best-case
scenario if 5,000 leave the system, these will be the best
trained border police officers, people working in intelligence,
fire-fighters. "This will jeopardize the internal and the
national security," he said.

Members of the Defence trade union in the Podkrepa Labour
Confederation said that adopting the budget in its current
version has not been discussed by the social partners in the
National Council for Tripartite Cooperation. they said the case
is "a clear proof for bogus and ill-meaning social dialogue on
the part of the government". "Next year's budget not only does
not reform the systems of the Defence Ministry and the Interior
Ministry but in reality aggravates the problems the systems
experience. Making such decisions can only drive back the young
high-skilled people who want to serve their country," the trade
union says.

Popov and head of the Defence trade union in Podkrepa Todor
Vodenov described Tuesday's meeting of the trade unions and the
ministers of finance and of the interior as "hopelessly late".

The Finance Minister

At a joint briefing with Buchvarova Goranov presented the
proposed changes. The Finance Minister said that on account of
paying the compensation of 20 salaries when police officers
leave the system, the State is unable to provide resources for
real police, intelligence and other law-enforcement activities.
Goranov said also that the pay in the Interior Ministry "will be
 kept up to the achieved levels and no reductions are there to
speak of". Goranov said that the only reduction is the due
compensation upon retirement, limiting leaves, and consolidating
 additional pays for length of service. Goranov motivated his
demand for changes with the
fact that the structure of remuneration in the Interior Ministry
 has reached a stage where 95 per cent of the budget of the
Ministry go towards salaries. His idea is to channel the
resources for real policies and improving the conditions of work
 in the Ministry, and not to pay compensations to quitting
employees.

The Finance Minister recalled that in the past few years all
deficits have automatically led to new debts.  

The Interior Minister

Buchvarova said that the questions concerns public resources,
the security of the State and the interests of the Ministry
employees, and the solution to the situation should be sought
and found in the crossing point of these three axes. Buchvarova
said that for the proposed changes she has the support of the
professional leadership of the Ministry. The proposals had been
discussed with the Finance Ministry in the course of two months,
 she said, adding that delaying the solution to the problems of
the Ministry only aggravates them. Buchvarova admitted that 250
people have quit in the past several days, but noted that the
process
 had been going on long before the proposed changes were clear.

Spontaneous Protests Break Out

The police protests are scheduled to start at 18:00 hrs on
Wednesday in Sofia,
Pleven, Vratsa, Elhovo, Varna and Dobrich, and to continue for
days. However, as the meeting went on, protests broke out 
spontaneously already on Tuesday.

Several dozens and then hundreds of Interior Ministry
staff gathered in front of the Finance Ministry. They blocked
the street. Several police patrol cars came as well. Some of the
 protesting employees started a march that went via the building
 of the National Assembly, where they chanted "Scum" and
"Cowards". Some of the protestors blocked a key junction in
downtown Sofia. Police protests also broke out in several towns
and at border checkpoints. 

Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Georgi Kostov and Sofia
Interior Ministry Department Director Mladen Marinov went out to
 meet the protesting officers. Kostov said that their actions
were unlawful and stressed that police officers should set an
example to people. Kostov said that he talked to Prime Minister
Boyko Borissov, and is to meet him on Wednesday.

The Politicians

Meanwhile, in an express statement of its parliamentary group,
the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) took a firm stand
against the "cabinet's attempt to do away with the compensations
 paid upon retirement, and the length-of-service pay of the
employees in the security sector". The MRF says that these
payments were not a privilege but fair compensation for the
risks and difficult working conditions of the people in the
security sector. MRF says it will vote against the proposed
changes.

Socialist leader Mihail Mikov predicted that a solution will be
found given the protests.  He said that the local elections have
 somehow screened what this country will be faced with next
year. In Mikov's words, to effect such a change in the matter of
 just few days and during elections in a bid to deflect the
negative reactions is - to say the least - incorrect towards the
 people in the Interior Ministry.