Caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gurov, caretaker Finance Minister Georgi Klisurski and Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev did not meet employees of Sofia's urban transport on Wednesday after the Federation of Transport Unions of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) had invited them to a meeting to discuss higher wages and better working conditions in the sector.
"We cannot explain why this is happening," CITUB Vice President Todor Kapitanov commented to journalists. "We hope that they will hold talks with the representatives of the people, on which the acceptance of the demands of the unions depends," he pointed out, adding that they demand additional subsidization of Sofia Municipality, which would provide an opportunity for a 5% wage increase in urban transport.
"After we failed to hold an adequate social dialogue at the last meeting at Sofia Municipality, we hoped that here in a wider circle with the workers, with representatives of the State, we would be able to do one, but alas, it did not happen," Federation of Transport Unions chair Aleksander Shopov emphasized.
"We hope that when the budget extension act is voted on, the MPs will pay attention to us and vote for these 5% for workers in the capital's transport, Bulgarian Posts and the Bulgarian State Railways, just like they increased the wages in the rest of the public sector," he pointed out. He said that if there are no real actions, workers and trade unions are ready to protest, but hopefully it will not come to that. "We insist on social dialogue and have our proposals, and we hope that someone hears them," Shopov commented.
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