[size=85:38oazeeu]Sofia echo

Bulgaria's BDZ to call nationwide strike on November 24

Bulgaria's state railways BDZ will launch an indefinite strike on November 24, which will affect all train services in the country for eight hours a day, trade union representatives said on November 7 2011.

The walk-out is in response to the emergency measures announced by BDZ's management, which envisage massive job cuts, reduction in the number of trains on almost all routes and higher train fares.

As part of the measures, to be implemented by the end of the year, the railway operator will offer 2000 of its employees voluntary redundancy, receiving compensation of six gross salaries.

In addition to the 2000 workers, BDZ will embark on further job cuts, with the number yet to be specified, and discontinue 150 daily train services. The price of tickets will be increased by between nine per cent and 15 per cent.

The announced cost-cutting measures are in breach of the memorandum of understanding signed after the one-day strike on March 10, Petar Bounev, leader of the Union of Railway workers at the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), said.

"
We were never informed about the reason for the change in the restructuring plan,"
he said.

According to Bounev, BDZ should have decided to downsize its staff by 2800 by the end of 2014 through retirement, natural attrition and outsourcing of activities such as cleaning and security.

These job cuts were intended to allow BDZ to comply with the World Bank's requirements for a 30 per cent reduction in labour costs as part of the conditions for obtaining a rescue loan of 600 million leva. According to trade unions, however, the number of job cuts will reach 3000 by mid-2012, affecting chiefly operational staff, which will further worsen the safety of railway services.