site.btaMajor Trade Union Calls for Urgent Meeting with Government, Employers to Discuss Anti-crisis Package

The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) wants the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation to discuss urgently the government's anti-crisis package and the minimum wage. While CITUB supports the anti-crisis measures, it objects to the way they were presented without consultation with the trade unions and employers, the organization said in a letter to Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Assen Vassilev.

Vassilev chairs the tripartite council.

The trade union said: "The social partners learned from the media about the government's proposal of anti-crisis measures directly oriented to the people whom we represent." Social dialogue requires that living standards, welfare and consumer purchasing power be discussed with the representatives of the employees and employers, CITUB said.

It also insists that the Finance Minister detail the employers and trade unions on his Ministry's plans for increases of the minimum wage.