site.btaSocial Partners Discuss 2020 Budget Bills

October 30 (BTA) - The government, trade unions and
nationally representative employer organizations held a meeting
of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation on Wednesday
to discuss the 2020 budget bills - for national budget, social
insurance budget and National Health Insurance Fund budget -
proposed by the government.

Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said that the expected
economic growth for the next three years is some 3.3 per cent
for each year. The growth will be slightly lower than planned
this year, at 3.4 per cent.

Public-sector wages are set to increase by 10 per cent next
year.

The Finance Minister said that the expected increase of the
average wage in 2021 to 1,400-1,500 leva is realistic.

"We are consistent in trying to pressure employers into
increasing incomes, both through the minimum wage and through
the remuneration in the public sector," he commented.

He said the 2020 budget has enough buffers, is feasible and
balances well the key sectors funded by the government.

The tax burden will remain unchanged. The government debt will
decrease.


The employers reiterated their objections against the
administrative increase of the minimum wage and the planned
increase of public-sector wages. 

"We cannot support this. We have been proposing for years to
negotiate [the minimum wage increase] by economic activities
between employers and trade unions. There has been some progress
 in the dialogue and I hope we will agree on such [minimum]
wages next year," said the leader of the Association of
Industrial Capital in Bulgaria, Vassil Velev.

The representative organizations said that they support in
principle the proposed budgets but it must be clear that reforms
 are needed.

"The budget has more strengths [than weaknesses] and the
weaknesses are the result of lacking reforms," Velev said. 

Employers are happy to see that education remains a top priority
 and that research and culture are made priorities now.

They are against any increase in the maximum contributory
income.

All employers' organizations demanded the scrapping of the
minimum contributory income again.

Velev believes that it is not too late to make changes that will
 solve the problems of hospitals, since, in his words, there is
an increase in the budget appropriations for health care and
this money often goes for healthy people.

Velev argued that an increase of the wages to the public-sector
administration can be achieved by optimizing the staff, not by a
 900 million leva increase in personnel costs in the budget.

Tsvetan Simeonov of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry said that a wage increase of 10 per cent is
unacceptable and will put the private sector under pressure and
drain its resource.

Businesses said there were no demographic policies in the
budget.

The Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria is firmly in
favour of keeping unchanged the minimum and maximum compensation
 for unemployment as they believe that Bulgaria practically does
 not have unemployment but there are people who refuse to
retrain and take the available jobs.

The trade unions argued that the tax policy is the main flaw of
the state budget and that key changes are needed. Vanya
Grigorova of the Podkrepa Labour Confederation said one such
much needed change is to stop taxing the minimum wage.

She also said that no steps are being proposed against
undeclared labour.
 
The social payments - child, maternity, unemployment benefits
and the guaranteed minimum income - are all frozen, she pointed
out.

Lyubov Kostova of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions
in Bulgaria commented that the 2020 budget is a notch more
conservative than the 2019 budget.

This union is happy with the proposed increase of the minimum
wage but believe that an increase of 50 leva is not enough.
DT/RY/LN/




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