site.btaEnvironment Minister to Protesters: You’re Right to Demand Higher Pay, But Don’t Block Roads

Environment and Water Minister Petar Dimitrov on Thursday supported the demand for a pay rise issued by staffers of the ministry’s system, who blocked a busy junction in Sofia during a protest earlier in the day. “I support your just cause to get a wage increase, but I don’t support the blocking of roads,” Dimitrov said, as quoted by his ministry.

Valentina Vasilyonova, who chairs the Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Agriculture with the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, joined protesters’ representatives during talks with the minister. They complained that they do not receive decent pay for their work and reiterated their call for a 30% increase of their base monthly wages until the end of 2024, reckoned from November 1, and a further rise by at least 15% in 2025.

Dimitrov said that since 2023 the Environment and Water Ministry has been making efforts to address this longstanding issue through meetings, notifications and correspondence with the Finance Ministry. He has not received confirmation that a 30% pay rise has been accepted. None of the steps taken by the Environment and Water Ministry has been approved by the Finance Ministry, he said.

These efforts received support from all political forces in the Committees on Environment and on Finance in the previous National Assembly, Dimitrov noted. He hopes that the desired results will be achieved with future parliamentary support.

According to the press release, most of the rank-and-file employees of the regional departments in the system of the Environment and Water Ministry earn between BGN 1,100 and BGN 1,500 per month, which is not enough for people with their skills and job requirements. Over the last few years, all efforts of the trade unions and the government have been centred on increasing the minimum wage in Bulgaria without raising incomes that are higher than the minimum wage. This has led to a situation where a junior expert who has the required higher education is paid less than a cleaning lady or a doorkeeper, whose jobs do not require higher education and foreign language proficiency.

There are 310 vacant job positions in the Environment and Water Ministry system, the press release said. In some departments, almost half of the staff positions are vacant. Meanwhile, experienced employees keep quitting all the time. Twenty-eight competitions held over the last two years to recruit staff to the ministry’s central administration have not led to the employment of a single person due to a lack of candidates or refusal to take office because of a low base wage.