Federation “Telecommunications” with Bulgaria’s trade union “Podkrepa” threatened to file a claim against the state in Strasbourg in case that new collective labour contract between the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company and its employees is not signed. The federation together with their colleagues from the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria will protest in front of the building of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company on March 22. Earlier during the week, the trade unions warned that will block the privatization of the telecom with protests against the government’s refusal to the employees 20% preference shares in the company. The BTC privatization strategy envisages that up to 65% of the telecom be sold and up to 20% be launched on the Bulgarian stock exchange. The document does not envisage the workers to acquire BTC shares since the new Privatization Act dropped such preferences. The government intends to sell BTC by mid-year. The previous deal on the old Privatization Act provided for the workers to acquire preference shares. According to syndicates’ estimations some 10 thousand people will be sacked in the 2-3 years following the BTC privatization. At the moment 25 500 people work there but after 80% network digitalization, about 16 thousands are to remain.