site.btaUnions Blast Labour Ministry Over “Sham” Labour Code Revisions Concerning Collective Bargaining

Trade unions oppose Labour Ministry’s draft amendments to the Labour Code, aimed at promoting collective bargaining.

The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) will do everything possible, from alerting all relevant European institutions to organizing protests, to ensure that Bulgaria does not adopt “sham legislation”, CITUB Vice President Todor Kapitanov told journalists after a meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation, where the transposition of the EU Directive on adequate minimum wages and the promotion of collective bargaining were discussed.

“What the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy has proposed is, to put it mildly, a simulation of transposing the directive, and such legislative proposals are scandalous,” Kapitanov said.

According to him, the proposals once again leave working people without any encouragement for collective wage bargaining. “There is no support or security for trade union protection of employees, and what is most worrying is that when they start defending their rights and demanding higher wages, they will most likely be arrested,” Kapitanov added.

“In this context, we want to make it clear to the Ministry that directives protecting workers and employees are not optional, they are mandatory for implementation,” he concluded.

“In places where a collective labour agreement is in place, wages are at least 14% higher than in those without one,” said Lyuboslav Kostov, Chief Economist at CITUB. “Actions like today’s undermine the importance of organized collective labour.”

“In the context of the upcoming state budget, which will be released in a few days, we raised the issue with Minister Gutsanov to once again confirm the amount of the minimum wage for next year, since the review of the Council of Ministers’ decree is being delayed and our members are asking what is happening,” he added. “We have the assurance of Minister Gutsanov that the minimum wage will remain as agreed during the tripartite council discussions and as we know it, at BGB 1,213. Anything different from that would not have been coordinated with us and would not follow the proper procedure, as required by Bulgarian law,” Kostov said.

The Podkrepa Confederation of Labour also did not support the proposed amendments to the Labour Code, as “we did not find any binding element linking it to the directive concerning the establishment of a mechanism for adequate minimum wages,” said Podkrepa secretary Valeri Apostolov.

“We did not see any of the actions that the state must take to create conditions for expanding the scope of collective bargaining so that it covers 80% of workers. We understand the Ministry’s desire to take a palliative approach in order to avoid sanctions from Europe by creating the appearance of legislation that supposedly completes the transposition of the directive. We disagree with that, as piecemeal solutions are not what the trade unions want,” Apostolov added.