BULGARIA: Bulgarian teachers on hunger strike for higher pay

Record ID: 340287

  • Title: BULGARIA: Bulgarian teachers on hunger strike for higher pay
  • Date: 1st October 2007
  • Summary: EXTERIOR OF THE BULGARIAN TEACHERS UNION AND BULGARIAN FLAG SIGN IN BULGARIAN WHICH READS: "BULGARIAN TEACHERS UNION"
  • Embargoed: 16th October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bulgaria
  • Country: Bulgaria
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Education
  • Reuters ID: LVAF2RWNICNXE3RHDMTLH1UJ689G
  • Story Text: Thousands of teachers are on an indefinite strike in Bulgaria shutting down over 60 percent of the country's schools and kindergartens to press for doubling of their salaries.
    Nine teachers have gone on hunger strike in Bulgaria to back demands for a doubling of their salaries, trade unions said on Thursday (September 27).
    Thousands of teachers began an indefinite strike on Monday (September 24) that shut down about two-thirds of the European Union newcomer's schools and kindergartens after wage talks with the government failed last week.
    The Socialist-led cabinet, which is under increasing pressure to boost living standards in the poorest EU nation, has refused to restart talks.
    "We are absolutely determined not to give up and stop our strike until our demands are met," said Eli Ovcharova, teacher a teacher in Sofia.
    "I am on strike because in a country, where it is not possible for a professional to live with dignity by doing his job the best way he can - such a country is doomed," said Tsvetana Milcheva another teacher.
    Up to 4,000 striking teachers marched in Sofia on Thursday (September 27) to press for a 100 percent pay rise in three instalments starting from Oct. 1. Unions say the average monthly salary of a teacher of 340.78 levs (174 euros) is "extremely humiliating".
    The unions said nine teachers in various parts of the country had begun a hunger strike and urged them not to resort to such extreme actions.
    The cabinet offered a 32 percent wage rise but said the increases should be linked to teachers' performance and examination results.
    The Minister of Science and Education Daniel Valchev, said the government had acknowledged that wages in the education sector were low but fulfilling demands for higher incomes would inflame inflation further and jeopardise the economy.
    "The position of the Bulgarian government is, that this is not a matter of what we want or not, this is a matter of economical calculations," Valchev, after a meeting with teachers.
    "It is not right for the Bulgarian teachers, school and kindergarten personnel to get an average salary of 170 euro per month,"
    said Yanka Takeva, Head of Bulgarian Teachers Union and added, "Even in Serbia, whose economy is not as good as the Bulgarian at the moment and where there was a war, teachers get 450 euros. Shall we think, that the Bulgarian government is less capable among our neighbours to ensure 365 euro in the next year?"
    Social workers, doctors, pensioners and miners have also been demanding higher pay and better working conditions.
    The Balkan country of less than 8 million has the lowest incomes in the EU with GDP per capita at around a third of the bloc's average.
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