site.btaTrade Unions, EmployersThreaten to Quit Energy Board unlessIts Complement Is Changed

Trade Unions, Employers
Threaten to Quit Energy Board unless
Its Complement Is Changed


Sofia, October 17 (BTA) - In a letter addressed to Prime
Minister Georgi Bliznashki and Deputy Prime Minister Ekaterina
Zaharieva and circulated by the Podkrepa press centre on Friday,
four employers' organizations and two trade union
confederations threaten to leave the Energy Board unless its
complement is changed.

The organizations express their "strong dissatisfaction with the
manner in which the Energy Board functions and is irresponsibly
used to rubberstamp decisions made in advance."

"It is a fact that the Energy Board was used to legitimate a
previously adopted decision to raise the price of electricity as
from October 1. This decision was not subjected to a discussion
and was not put to the vote by the Board members," the letter
reads.

Its signers refuse to be used as "props for PR actions
misrepresenting single-handed decisions as consensual and backed
by the social partners' representatives".

"We are witnessing the emergence of strong lobbyist groups both
within the complement of the Energy Board and within the
complement of the thematic working groups with itЕ After two
meetings of the Board held and an election of the members of its
expert groups, our apprehensions, expressed in a letter by
Podkrepa of August 26, 2014, have been confirmed."

The employers and trade unions argue that their representative
organizations, which largely represent electricity customers
themselves, should participate in the Energy Board. "Legal
persons registered under the Commerce Act (as well as non-profit
organizations gravitating to them) should not be part of the
Energy Board, regardless of their share in the production or
distribution of electricity in Bulgaria," the letter reads.
"These electricity producing and distributing companies are
perfectly well represented by the respective branch and national
employer organizations."

The letter is signed by the Bulgarian Industrial Capital
Association, the Bulgarian Industrial Association, the Bulgarian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Confederation of
Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria, the Confederation of
Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria and the Podkrepa
Confederation of Labour. PK/LG