site.btaSocial Workers Stage Warning Strike, Demand Higher Pay and Better Working Conditions

Employees of the Social Assistance Agency (SAA), supported by the administration employees division of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour, staged a one-hour warning strike in various parts of Bulgaria on Tuesday. The protesters demanded a pay rise and better working conditions.

In Sofia, a demonstration was held outside the Social Assistance Directorate in the Borough of Lyulin. The unions insist on a 30% pay rise for social workers and an adjustment of public spending on working clothes in the sector. If the demands are not met, the protesters will stage a full-scale strike, which means cancelling work and suspending welfare payments, Podkrepa's Kremena Atanassova warned. She said that the SAA is one of the institutions which are constantly tasked with more work.

Demonstrators were wearing ribbons inscribed "We Will Not Tolerate It! We Will Not Keep Silent!" People were waving blue Podkrepa flags.

Similar rallies were held in Burgas, Ruse, Vratsa, Dobrich, Pleven, Silistra, Kyustendil and some smaller settlements. Protesters in Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Haskovo and Razgrad said that an indefinite strike may follow unless their demands are met.