A new attempt to reach agreement between business and trade unions on the transposition of the European directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union will be made tomorrow, hosted by the Confederation of Labor "Podkrepa". This was announced by the president of the trade union Dimitar Manolov at an international conference dedicated to social dialogue and protection of workers in crises, quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio.
The directive concerns the determination of the minimum wage and the expansion of the scope of collective bargaining and no consensus has been reached so far.
Negotiations between trade unions and business on the upcoming transposition into Bulgarian legislation of the new European directive on adequate minimum wages continue tomorrow.
The president of the Trade Union "Podkrepa" Dimitar Manolov commented:
"The "Battle of Thermopylae" will take place, at which we will "fight" with employers under the "eye" government's view, to try to complete all the work that we have done so far regarding the introduction of the requirements of this directive".
The last meeting on the topic so far was last Friday with the participation of Social Minister Borislav Gutsanov and no agreement was reached.
Ivelin Zhelyazkov from the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria (AIKB) called the social dialogue "Theme of topics". He stated that the texts in the Labor Code on the determination of the minimum wage as 50% of the average were adopted for "purely populist reasons" and explained why a mechanism should be agreed upon by the social partners to replace this automatic formula.
"It is not good for anyone. This is already clear to everyone. And for this reason, employers and unions, as responsible representatives of the interests of their members, have been trying for several months to prepare a mechanism by which, with the active participation of both parties, to determine such a salary amount that would comply with the acts to which Bulgaria is a party and be as high as possible".
The Trade Union "Podkrepa" is hosting a two-day international conference dedicated to social dialogue and the protection of workers in successive economic crises. The forum is attended by trade unionists and experts from a number of European countries, including Germany, France, Poland, Serbia, Austria, Albania, Romania. The emphasis in the discussions is the importance of social dialogue in the conditions of modern crises - economic, health, military, energy and climate. And at this forum, the current topic of recent days about the negotiations between business and unions on the mechanism for determining the minimum wage in our country was raised.
Geopolitical and economic crises - new challenges for workers - the impact of the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, energy crisis, the crisis in the Middle East, inflation, job insecurity, labor migration, increasing inequalities and social tension. And the general consequences of the conflicts - reduced economic predictability, high levels of uncertainty for business and employment, difficult long-term planning of investments and social policies.
It is no coincidence that at the conference, one of the accents in the speeches was placed on the role of social dialogue as a mechanism for mitigating crises through timely anti-crisis measures, consensus around socially just solutions and protection of the most vulnerable through agreements, indexations and social buffers. And in simple words, the union response - collective bargaining and income protection, employment support programs, etc. Naturally, the role of social dialogue on home soil cannot be ignored.
The forum is being held under the auspices of the European Workers' Center EZA - one of the most authoritative organizations for training workers, with over 70 trade union organizations, training centers, academic institutes from 30 European countries as members. The conference continues tomorrow.