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Strike at Bulgaria's Maritza Iztok Mines Postponed to Jan 14 |
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Saturday, 7 January 2012The strike of the workers at the Maritsa East Mines AD has been postponed by seven days to January 14.
The new date was announced on Friday by Gencho Genchev, leader of the Podkrepa Labor Confederation at the state-owned coal mining company.
The syndicates demanded an apology from Energy Minister Traicho Traikov for derogatory remarks he made on the turmoil at Maritsa East Mines AD during a Friday morning broadcast and urged Prime Minister Borisov to dismiss him if he failed to offer an excuse.
Thursday's talks between the unions and the management of Maritsa East Mines AD once again failed to resolve the pay rise dispute.
"We were presented with some proposals but they do not coincide with our demands," Genchev explained, adding that the problem was not only due to the unpaid bonuses under the agreement from July 12, 2100, but also due to the overall breach of the terms set out in the document
The managing body of the mining company made two offers to the syndicates, which were announced at a Friday press conference.
One option involved the payment of individual bonuses of different amounts with a view to stimulating the ones directly involved in the production process, said Evgeni Stoykov, CEO of the company.
The second proposal provided for the payment of bonuses to all workers with the syndicates giving their consent for a corporate restructuring without any staff cuts aimed at boosting internal communication within the company.
The syndicates demanded that workers get bonuses of BGN 1000 due to the overfulfilling of the annual plan by almost 6 tons of coal, which would cost the company some BGN 8 – 10 M.
The management of Maritsa Iztok Mines AD, however, said that the money had been earmarked for investments in 2012.
Meanhwile, Gencho Genchev and Energy Minister Traikov quarreled about the issue during the morning broadcast of bTv.
Traikov argued that there would be no strike because the wages were high, the company was in excellent financial condition and the management had honored its payment commitments.
The Energy Minister also assured that there would be no power outages.
The three open-pit mines at Maritsa Iztok Mines AD supply coal to four thermal power plants and account for 25% of the country's electricity needs.
The state-owned company has a total headcount of 7100.
According to data of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), 6000 workers declared their readiness to go on strike in writing.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov stated that the miners were better paid that Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov and that there was no reason for them to seek a pay rise.
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Saturday, 7 January 2012
Novinite
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