Bulgarian Employers Opposed the Draft State Budget for 2019

The main argument of the business is that the decision for higher income and the increase the maximum monthly amount of earnings used to calculate social security contributions was taken without the government to comply with the opinion of the employers, reports BNT. 

Large employer organisations opposed the draft 2019 state budget during the tripartite cooperation council on 26th of October..

The President of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIBG), Kiril Domuschiev, came out with a common position. According to him, the decision to raise the minimum wage from 1 January to BGN 560 and the raising of the maximum monthly income subject to social security contributions from 1 July to BGN 3,000 was taken without discussing it with employers.

Domuschiev suspects that the government has negotiated the texts with the trade unions.

Podkrepa trade union rejected this thesis and announced that they back the proposed budgets. However, they opposed to the freezing of unemployment benefits and the second year of maternity leave.

Podkrepa's chair, Dimitar Manolov, also pointed out that the union is "sympathetic" to the budget of the Health Insurance Fund, but warned the government that the set out texts could pose problems in the future.

The debate on budgets continues in the tripartite council.