Why did the metropolitan public transport protest and what are the demands of the drivers?
"At the beginning of this year, transport workers again protested for an increase in wages. Then they demanded a 30% wage increase and better working conditions. They got a 15% raise and a bunch of promises. Working conditions in the transport garage are poor and unacceptable. This is due to the curtailed capital investments that have to be made. There are more than 200 drivers who are missing, which is more than 10% of the personnel of the motor vehicle", said the municipal councilor from "There are such people" Plamen Danailov in "The Day ON AIR".
According to him, it is not easy to develop a bonus system, but it is not nuclear physics either.
"If someone promises you something and doesn't keep it, it's fair to be angry with them. They do not receive small remunerations, but even they do not have enough personnel. A man would tolerate poor working conditions if his wages were high enough. But when he lacks both, it becomes difficult. The transport framework that Terziev, his team and the supporting councilors proposed was extremely poor. It led to us meeting in an extraordinary session to save the two ground operators - road transport and electric transport. It led to the fact that there is no road transport and there are about 4 million unfulfilled kilometers this year", Danailov added for Bulgaria ON AIR.
Funds are also needed for repairs
According to him, there is a lack of funds for new buses and for repairing the old ones.
"Perhaps some 9 to 10 million BGN are missing for the quality repair of some of the buses that are not in motion. Several tens of millions of BGN are missing for investments in the garages. The investments for the garages are also so that the auto fitters can do their work with quality so that we can travel in quality buses. The money from the state is by decree of the Council of Ministers. Transport is also a social service and there should be additional funding, because it is used by students, disabled people and pensioners", commented the guest.
The debt of "Toplofikatsia Sofia" can exceed 2 billion, Danailov is categorical.
"At the moment, due to non-implementation of the capital program, there is a lot of funds in the Capital Municipality. Soon the debt may exceed 2 billion. They are divided between 800 million of the two companies. It's a social service. "Heating" is trapped in poverty. You have a certain social service that you deliver, but the main source of energy that you deliver is gas. And only for 2022 "Heating" accumulated a loss of about BGN 500-600 million, because then the price of natural gas was BGN 70. There was a time when it was bought for BGN 350," he explained.