Bulgaria

Health workers win 90%-100% increases in pay

Health workers in Bulgaria successfully negotiated a new collective agreement on 4 June that increases their salaries by 90 to 100 per cent. The signing of the agreement comes before the discussions on the 2009 Budget, and after the mass strikes of 2007 in the education and health care sectors. The increase will take effect on 1 July, and will cover hospitals in state and municipal ownership, as well as hospitals operating as joint stock-holdings. The agreement is the first in a series of steps aimed at bringing the salaries of Bulgarian workforce into line with those in the European Union in a bid to stem the exodus of medical workers abroad. Read more at > PSI (EN)

Bulgarian government condemned over strike restrictions

The Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe has condemned the Bulgarian government for not respecting the right to strike for civil servants and other groups of public service workers such as in electricity and health care. The verdict came after the ETUC and the Bulgarian confederations CITUB and Podkrepa brought a case before the Committee in 2005. Read more at > ETUC (EN) And at > ETUC (FR)

Strike restrictions on public services lifted

The EIRO industrial relations observatory reports that new legislation has introduced the right to strike for workers in the civil service, energy, telecommunications and healthcare sectors for the first time. Restrictions were placed on these sectors when labour dispute resolution laws were introduced in 1990. Unions have been campaigning since then for a proper right to strike rather than a right to symbolic action. Read more at > EIRO (EN)

Unions take action over low pay

Affiliates of the CITUB federation organised a national demonstration at the end of May in protest at low pay and restrictions on the right to strike. The demonstration was targeted in particular at the government and employers in the health, energy, local transport and telecommunications sectors. Read more at > EPSU

Healthworkers stage protests

Changes to hospital funding threaten to cut doctors’ and nurses’ pay by up to a half in some institutions. The Podkrepa trade union backed protests against the changes and is calling for a doubling of health care funding to take it from 4.4% of GDP to 8.8%. Read more at > Sofia Echo news agency

Social dialogue and collective bargaining in healthcare

Despite the problems of restructuring, large-scale job cuts and declining union membership, a report from EIRO suggests that unions in the health sector have managed to make progress in collective bargaining. A new collective bargaining round is underway over new two-year agreements. In the recent years the unions have won improvements in working hours and ensured that issues like violence and stress are covered in the collective agreements. Read more at >EIRO

Social dialogue in emergency services

The industrial relations observatory EIRO reports on a meeting earlier this year which discussed the situation for emergency service workers in Bulgaria. Organisations representing the police, firefighters and other emergency staff are facing difficult conditions with not enough staff because of budget cuts and pressure to work excessive hours. Read more at > EIRO