site.btaPodkrepa Administrative Employees' Trade Union Speaks Out against Administrative Costs Cut Plan

The Administrative Employees' Trade Union within the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour expressed its strong indignation and unconditional disagreement with the Finance Ministry’s announced plans for an automatic 10% cut in administrative spending without a prior functional analysis, workload assessment, efficiency analysis, or assessment of the consequences for the functioning of state institutions, an open letter sent to the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, cabinet ministers, agency heads, and others, said. The position was published on the website of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour on Wednesday.

"The imposition of cuts without a real assessment of activities and human resource needs can be defined as administrative arbitrariness, which will lead to further reduction of administrations that are already operating under chronic staff shortages, low pay, and excessive workloads," the statement read. The intentions "to introduce a mechanism for increasing salaries by a uniform percentage across all administrations, regardless of the existing huge imbalances in pay levels" were also described as alarming in the open letter.

"We insist that it should be clearly stated that the state administration is not an expense that can be cut indiscriminately, but a key element in the functioning of the state," the Union said.

They warned that tensions among workers and employees in the public sector are running high. "If this policy continues, Podkrepa will take all actions permitted by law to protect its members’ right to decent work and fair pay, including organizing protests, effective strike actions, and other forms of union pressure," the statement read.

This week, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Galab Donev announced that a proposal will be made to maintain the 5% pay increase for public sector employees as stipulated in the extension budget law, while reducing salary expenses and related social security contributions in the budgets effective September 1, 2026, by 10%, without cutting wages and compensation of workers and employees.

At the start of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Rumen Radev assured that there would be no mass layoffs, which could lead to a loss of administrative capacity and legal risks. There will be no layoffs or restructuring before a review of administrative structures and functions has been completed, Radev added. He said that there should be a detailed assessment to identify overlapping responsibilities and determine which activities can be automated or digitized.