site.btaAgreement Signed on Pay Rise in Sofia's Underground Railway Company

An agreement was signed here on Wednesday to increase the salaries of those working at Metropolitan EAD, the company operating Sofia's underground railway system (metro), said the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) on behalf of of the Federation of Transport Trade Unions. The agreement is a compromise one, the trade union specified.

To receive a pay rise of BGN 248 are all workers excluding train drivers, who will get higher salaries under a different scheme so as to reduce differences in remunerations. A mechanism will be created with objective criteria for reducing the pay gaps in basic wages for the same jobs, the CITUB said.

On March 15, Metropolitan employees staged a protest in downtown Sofia under the slogan "For a dignified distribution of funds for wage increases in Metropolitan". Their dissatisfaction stemmed from fears that the agreement concluded on February 26 between Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev and the transport trade unions for a 15% increase in wages would not be implemented as signed. According to the CITUB, that agreement did not yield results.