site.btaUPDATED National Radio Staffers Stage Protest to Press for Pay Rise

Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) staffers blocked traffic on a central Sofia boulevard Wednesday as they protested with demands for higher pay. 

The protest was organized by the BNR chapters of the Podkrepa Labour Confederation and the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB).

Among the protestors were the leaders of Podkrepa and CITUB, Dimiter Manolov and Plamen Dimitrov, as well as the head of the Board of the Union of Bulgarian Journalists, Snezhana Todorova.

BNR Director General Milen Mitev joined the protest. He said that the BNR budget needs to be increased by BGN 10 million of which 7 million is for a wage increase and the rest of equipment and other capital expenditures.

BNR staffers from other parts of the countries also joined in.

Magdalena Bizheva, a union leader at the BNR office in the southern town of Blagoevgrad, told BTA that they include their demands in the local BNR newscast so that they raise awareness of their demands among their audience. "We have been the last in the public sector to start a protest. Since 2019, we have been writing to each minister, each new Parliament, the parliamentary budget committee, everybody with power to make a decision regarding our incomes - and none of them heard us, there has been no wage increase and no increase of the budget for BNR. We feel threatened. We are angry at the State for turning a deaf ear to our demands," she said.

Like their co-workers in Blagoevgrad, the Varna service of BNR is airing an announcement saying that they insist for a fair pay for their honest work, and demand a pay raise by 25% to offset inflation since 2021.

BNR journalists in the southern town of Kardjali said that they are paid a wage of BGN 870, which is considerably less than the average wage of BGN 1,200 leva in the sector.

BNR staffers in Stara Zagora said that the BNR budget contracted by over 25% between 2009 and 2011, and now it is not even at the 2009 level. "We all know what the inflation is, and according to the National Statistical Institute, it has reached 52% since then," said Dimiter Dimitrov, a union leader at Radio Stara Zagora.