Minister Dimitrov supported the demands of the employees of the Ministry of Environment and Water for a salary increase

The Minister of Environment and Water Petar Dimitrov met with representatives of the protesting employees of the Ministry of Environment and Water system, after dozens of them blocked the intersection of Gornobanski Pat on Nikola Petkov and Tsar Boris III boulevards in Sofia today to express their demands for a salary increase and recognition for their highly qualified work. The action was attended by experts from the Executive Environment Agency (EEA), the Regional Environment and Water Inspectorates (REWI), together with the Basin Directorates, the National Parks and the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH).

Immediately after the action, their representatives, together with Valentina Vasilionova, Chairwoman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Agriculture within the system of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) in the role of a mediator in the conversation with Minister Dimitrov, expressed to him their disappointment with the lack of decent pay in the structures of the ministry and confirmed their demands for a 30% increase in basic monthly salaries by the end of this year, starting from November 1, and an increase in salaries in the budget of the Ministry of Environment and Water for 2025 by at least 15%.

"I support the just cause of salary increases, but I do not support the blocking of intersections" - with these words Minister Petar Dimitrov welcomed them. He shared about the consistent efforts, which began in 2023 and continue until the end of 2024, which the ministry's management team is making with continuous meetings, reports and correspondence to the Ministry of Finance (MF) to resolve this long-standing problem and frankly admitted that so far it does not have confirmation of the request for a 30% salary increase in the structures of the Ministry of Environment and Water. Not a single action taken by the Ministry of Environment and Water has received approval from the MF.

The last proposal sent by the Ministry of Environment and Water to resolve the problem on 14.10.2024 has also not received a response from the MF. In essence, it proposes an internally compensated change in the ministry's budget by increasing the expenses under the "personnel" indicator at the expense of the approved maintenance costs. The proposed reduction in maintenance costs for 2024 is at the expense of realized savings from unrealized public procurements. And at the moment, no opinion has been received from the Ministry of Finance and the attached financial justification has not been approved

The Minister also shared that in the parliamentary committees on environment and finance of the previous National Assembly, these efforts have received the support of all political forces without exception and expressed hope that the desired results will be achieved with future parliamentary support.

"Low salaries completely kill expertise in the environmental sector" - the Minister categorically emphasized. In confirmation of his words, Iva Talanova, Director of "Financial Management" at the Ministry of Environment, Water and Environment, presented to those present alarming facts that illustrate the lack of adequate financial policy for the Ministry of Environment system, which has led to an extremely large disproportion compared to the salaries in the administrations of the same category.

In the field of environment and water, over 14 specialized laws and numerous subordinate regulations are applied, which leads to a large volume of functions and obligations. They increase annually with the implementation of European regulations, without being provided with the necessary human and financial resources. It reaches the point of impossibility to fulfill the functional obligations in full scope, and the work requires narrow specialists with specialized knowledge and serious practical experience.

 

The majority of ordinary employees in the regional structures of the Ministry of Environment and Water receive between 1,100 BGN and 1,500 BGN per month - funds that do not meet their qualifications and the high requirements for their positions. In recent years, all efforts - trade union and management - have been focused on increasing the minimum wage, but without increasing other employee remuneration. This has practically led to the situation where a junior expert with the required higher education receives a lower salary than a hygienist or a janitor - positions that do not require higher education and proficiency in a foreign language. Currently, there are 310 vacant positions in the structures of the Ministry of Environment and Water. There are structures where these positions are almost 50% of the staff. At the same time, experienced personnel are constantly leaving. In the last 11 months alone, 34 employees have left the External Environmental Agency, 23 of whom have over 15 years of experience. The shortage of narrow specialists is compounded by the inability to attract such specialists - for the past two years, 28 competitions in the Central Administration of the Ministry of Environment and Water have ended without the appointment of an employee due to a lack of candidates or due to refusal to take up the position due to the low basic salary.

 

“The Ministry of Environment and Water has developed an internal methodology to achieve a balanced equalization of salaries between the administration and secondary spending officers, but it cannot be implemented due to the lack of a decision to increase the current salary,” informed the financial director. “Thus, the trend of inability to staff with the necessary specialists to fulfill key functional duties of the ministry is becoming permanent and extremely worrying,” Iva Talanova concluded.

 

“Justify your efforts to achieve decent salaries for employees with our dissatisfaction,” said the protesters’ negotiating group in response.

 

"The Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions (CITUB) is about to issue its protest declaration, and our next step will be to request a meeting with the Ministry of Environment, Water and Environment, at which we will continue to defend the fair demands of the employees of the Ministry of Environment and Water," said Valentina Vasilyonova. Those present united around this proposal, and Minister Petar Dimitrov undertook to personally participate in such a meeting.