site.btaLabour Minister Expects No Social Policy Shocks

There will be no setbacks as regards welfare payments, and no one will be deprived of the social services they have received so far. The pension increase approved by the National Assembly will not be reversed, it will be financed with BGN 9 billion in public money, Labour and Social Policy Minister Borislav Gutsanov said on Thursday.

Gutsanov was in Plovdiv attending a national meeting of the Employment Agency and representatives of job centres across the country.

As a member of the new regular government which took office on January 16, Gutsanov said he will pay more attention to the "labour" part of his portfolio than the "social policy" part "to make people feel secure about their jobs." "Therefore, my first meetings were with the trade unions and the employer organizations as we tried to ensure this. There will be no shocks in the social domain," he vowed.

A programme called "I'm Starting Work – Component 3: Employment" has just been launched, Gutsanov said, adding that it will be implemented by the Employment Agency under the Human Resources Development Programme 2021-2027. It will provide 14,000 temporary jobs, and later, 10,000 of them will become permanent jobs regulated by employment contracts across all sectors of the economy. "I'm Starting Work – Component 3: Emoployment" is targeted at economically inactive and jobless people as well as other individuals who have no chance to work for some reason.

He called for maintaining the government's good dialogue with employers in view of strengthening the link between the labour market and the high and higher levels of the education system, because some economic sectors experience a shortage of adequately trained employees. This requires synergy among the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the Ministry of Education and Science and the real economy, Gutsanov said.

He pledged to eliminate the income gap between the officers of the Employment Agency and the Social Assistance Agency. Wages in the two agencies will be adjusted through internal changes. "A way will be found for everyone to receive due remuneration because there should be no working poor," the minister said.