Bulgaria's State Mines Want to Declare Strike Illegal

The management of the Bulgarian Maritza Iztok mining company has come out with a legal claim demanding that the upcoming strike of its workers be declared illegal.

The managing body of the company and the syndicates are yet to reach an agreement concerning the Christmas bonuses requested by the workers, the Bulgarian National Radio has informed.

On Friday, the syndicates announced that the expected strike was to be postponed by 7 days until January 14. Workers from all sections of the mining company are ready to participate in the strike, it was announced on Saturday.

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.