site.btaTrade Unions, Employers to Stay Out of Monday's Tripartite Consultation on Budget Updates

Trade Unions, Employers to Stay Out of Monday's Tripartite Consultation on Budget Updates

Sofia, September 29 (BTA) - Confederation of Independent Trade
Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) President Plamen Dimitrov told
journalists here on Monday that the trade unions and the
employers will definitely not take part in the meeting of the
National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC), scheduled to
take place at 3 p.m. under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime
Minister and Labour and Social Policy Minister Yordan
Hristoskov.

The social partners are to discuss draft revisions of the 2014
State budget and the 2014 budget of the National Health
Insurance Fund, the Government Information Service said.

"This is not a boycott, the NCTC was simply not convened
according to the due procedure, especially on such an important
problem," Dimitrov said, commenting on the planned absence of
trade unions and employers. He argued that according to the
rules, the Council should meet two working days after the
materials for the agenda are made available to the partners.
"This happened on Saturday afternoon, which means that the
meeting should be held on Wednesday. If it was another matter,
we would have no problem coping over the weekend. But billions
of leva in taxpayers' money are at stake in this case, and I
think it is unserious to consult the social partners for a
Saturday and Sunday in this way," he added.

"We need several days to shape our position on the overall
impact of the update on the economy and whether the proposed
expenditures on the relevant items will help the systems
concerned," the CITUB President said. "That is why we asked for
that time and we hope we will get it, as required by the rules.
We are doing everything possible to coordinate our position with
the employers even today," Dimitrov said.