The country’s Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, has made a too hasty statement regarding the freeze of minimum wage and pensions, according to Social Policy Minister Totyu Mladenov. The two ministers clearly have different opinions on the subject. Mladenov reiterated that there is a possibility to increase the minimum incomes, saying “pensions can go up in the second half of the year.” In contrast, Djankov is firm that minimum wages are to remain frozen in 2011 since the budget for 2011 has already been passed and it does not include extra funds for salaries and pensions. A few days earlier Lyuben Tomev, Director of the Research Institute with the KNSB union confederation, pointed at the “unreasonably high” increases of the cost of living in Bulgaria. He argued that there were no valid grounds for the price increase of 6.4% in December 2010.
English: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=124683;
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=124473
M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS)