May 1 is perhaps the biggest secular victory in the non-religious calendar not only for Bulgarians, but also for the world. Today we will broadcast live in our confederation through our podcast and will touch on various topics about labor in the conditions of digitalization and artificial intelligence, about violations in the workplace, we will do topics about salaries, we will present the first master's degree in trade unionism and trade union policies. So today will be a dynamic day and I hope that all workers will find it interesting - this is what he said in the studio of "The Day Begins" the chief economist of the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions, Lyuboslav Kostov.
He commented that what labor in Bulgaria produces, as the fruits of economic growth,
is not distributed or redistributed proportionally, in the way it is redistributed in many other developed economies.
"I am not saying that there should be absolute equality, but there should be such equality that is healthy. To maintain competition, to stimulate people to work. We should not have to protest every year, to go on strikes, to take away the money that they have earned, worked for, and deserved. And in the private sector it is the same thing. Unfortunately, we are also struggling in the public sector to catch up with the private sector in terms of wage growth, but this does not mean that in the private sector they are growing at the pace that people want. Currently, the average wage is growing between 13% and 14%. In the public sector, they gave 5% to everyone. 96 billion was the budget. They decided to cut 300 million from income policy," said Lyuboslav Kostov.
He is adamant that all workers produce a different type of added value and it is measurable. He also emphasized that when we refer the minimum wage to a living wage, then we guarantee that there will be no working poor, because it is an oxymoron to work and be poor. There is no way to explain this to people in the West, that I work, pay my taxes and social security, and what is left over puts me in the "poor" column.