Bulgarian Govt's Labor Market Measures Said to Finally Bear Fruit

Business | January 30, 2011, Sunday // 16:01|  views

Bulgarian Labor Minister Mladenov (right) during a recent visit to the home of a family with 10 kids in the Kazanlak Municipality. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Labor Minister Totyu Mladenov expects an improvement of the labor market largely as a result of the government funded programs.

"After February I expect a revival of the labor market. We have allocated over BGN 400 M for training and qualification programs," Mladenov told BNR on Sunday.

With respect to his divergence of opinion with Finance Minister Simeon Djankov on whether the minimum wage and retirement pensions will be increased in 2011, Mladenov appears to be yielding ground. 

In the past two days, he and Djankov exchanged their views on the topic, with Djankov insisting no wage and pension hikes have been envisaged for 2011, and Mladenov assuming that the minimum wage could be increased from BGN 240 to BGN 290 in July if the Bulgarian economy performs better than expected in the first half of the year.

On Sunday, however, the Labor Minister was much more cautious.

"The revenues and expenditures are what they were planned to be, and there will be no opportunities to increase pensions. But we will watch the situation very closely. It is too early to talk. We will decide on the first half of the year is over, once we see how the economy is doing," Mladenov declared.

He boasted that joint operations with the Labor Inspectorate have led to 74 companies delaying their workers' salaries to have already paid half of all overdue wages.

Mladenov also mentioned that there are a total of 77 nursing homes in Bulgaria, funded by the Bulgarian state, with 5 500 residents and 1 500 people waiting for a spot in them.

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Tags: labor market, Totyu Mladenov, Simeon Djankov, finance minister, Labor Minister, minimum wage, minimum salary, retirement pensions, pensions

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