Totyu Mladenov: I am ready to resign

Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Totyu Mladenov, stated today that he was ready to resign if the Prime Minister would so request. Yesterday, PM Boyko Borissov said he had shown a yellow card to Mladenov because he had not explained to the syndicates the plans for increasing the retirement age. “The Prime Minister is absolutely right. His job is to criticise the ministers and ministries, me included, if they had not done their job,” said the Social Minister after his meeting with the heads of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), Plamen Dimitrov, and of the Podkrepa Labour Confederation, Konstantin Trenchev.

The main conclusion of Mladenov after today’s conversation with the leaders of the two largest trade unions in the country is that the opportunities for social dialogue have not been exhausted. He hinted there might be compromises from all the three parties involved in it. According to him, it is better to have bad dialogue, rather than no dialogue at all because the latter would not yield any positive result.

Mladenov said he had shared with Trenchev and Dimitrov his observations on the additional pressures on the social security systems in Europe, exerted by the economic and financial crisis. “In these conditions, the reforms planned by the Bulgarian Government are inevitable if we want to maintain the system’s stability and guarantee the pensions to retirees now and in the future,” specified Mladenov. According to him, at the end of 2010, when an agreement between the Government, the syndicates and businesses was reached, the situation was different and a recovery from the financial crisis was expected.

“We suggested increasing the stage for pensionable service by four months each year as of 1 January next year and afterwards – the retirement age. What is happening in the EU and the US now makes us more cautious and conservative. We received a report from the European Commission, encouraging the Government to proceed with its measures and urging us to undertake some of these even earlier than projected. For next year, we have projected 50% of revenues from taxes and 50% from social security contributions,” he added.

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