The trend of not being able to staff the ministry with the necessary specialists to fulfill its key functional duties is becoming permanent and extremely worrying

The Minister of Environment and Water Petar Dimitrov met with representatives of the protesting employees of the Ministry of Environment and Water, after dozens of them blocked the intersection of Gornobanski Pat at Nikola Petkov and Tsar Boris III boulevards in Sofia today to express their demands for a salary increase and recognition for their highly qualified work. Experts from the Executive Environment Agency (EEA), the Regional Inspectorates for Environment and Water (RIEW), together with the Basin Directorates, the National Parks, and the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH) participated in the action.

Immediately after the protest, their representatives, together with Valentina Vasilionova, Chairwoman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Agriculture within the system of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) in the role of a mediator in the conversation with Minister Dimitrov, expressed to him their disappointment at the lack of decent pay within the ministry's structures and confirmed their demands for a 30% increase in basic monthly salaries by the end of this year, starting from November 1, as well as an increase in salaries in the MOEW budget for 2025 by at least 15%.

"I support the just cause of salary increase, but I do not support blocking intersections" - with these words Minister Petar Dimitrov welcomed them. He shared about the consistent efforts, which began in 2023 and continue until the end of 2024, which the ministry's management team is making with continuous meetings, reports, and correspondence to the Ministry of Finance (MF) to resolve this long-standing problem and frankly admitted that so far there has does no confirmation of the request for a 30% salary increase in the structures of the Ministry of Environment and Water. Not a single action taken by the Ministry of Environment and Water has received approval from the MF.

The last proposal sent by the Ministry of Environment and Water to resolve the problem on 14.10.2024 has also not received a response from the MF. In essence, the proposal suggests an internally compensated change in the ministry's budget by increasing the expenses under the "personnel" category at the expense of the approved maintenance costs. The proposed reduction in maintenance costs for 2024 is at the expense of savings from unrealized public procurements. Until the current moment, no opinion has been received from the Ministry of Finance and the financial justification attached to the proposal has not been approved.

The Minister also shared that in the parliamentary committees on environment and finance of the previous National Assembly, these efforts received the support of all political forces without exception whereby they expressed hope that the desired results will be achieved with future parliamentary support.

“Low salaries completely deplete the environmental sector of expertise” – the Minister emphasized. In confirmation of his words, Iva Talanova, Director of “Financial Management” at the Ministry of Environment and Water, presented to those present alarming facts that illustrate the lack of adequate financial policy for the system  of the Ministry of Environment and Water, which has led to an extremely large disproportion compared to salaries in other administrations of the same category.

Over 14 specialized laws and numerous subordinate normative acts are applied in the field of environment and water, which leads to a large volume of functions and obligations. These increase annually with the implementation of European regulations, without being provided with the necessary human and financial resources. It becomes impossible to fulfill the functional duties in full, and the work requires narrow specialists with niche knowledge and serious practical experience.

The majority of ordinary employees in the regional structures of the Ministry of Environment and Water receive between 1,100 BGN and 1,500 BGN per month – funds that do not correspond to their qualifications and the high requirements for their positions. In recent years, all efforts – union and management – have been focused on increasing the minimum wage, but without increasing other employee remuneration. This has practically led to the situation where a junior expert with the required higher education receives a lower salary than a hygienist or janitor – positions that do not require higher education and proficiency in a foreign language. Currently, there are 310 unfilled jobs in the structures of the Ministry of Environment and Water. There are structures where these positions amount to almost 50% of the staff. At the same time, experienced staff are constantly leaving. In the last 11 months alone, 34 employees have left the Executive Environmental Agency, 23 of whom have over 15 years of experience. The shortage of specialists is compounded by the inability to attract them - over the last two years, 28 competitions in the central administration of the Ministry of Environment and Water have ended without the appointment of an employee due to lack of candidates or refusal to take the position because of the low salary.

“The Ministry of Environment and Water has developed an internal methodology to achieve a balanced equalization of salaries between the administration and secondary spending officers, but it cannot be implemented due to the lack of a decision to increase the current salary,” informed the financial director. “Thus, the trend of inability to staff with the necessary specialists to fulfill key functional duties of the ministry is becoming permanent and extremely worrying,” concluded Iva Talanova.

“Justify your efforts to achieve decent salaries for employees with our dissatisfaction,” the negotiating group on behlf of the protesters said in response.

“The Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions (CITUB) plans to issue a protest declaration, and our next step will be to request a meeting with the Ministry of Finance, at which we will continue to defend the fair demands of the employees within the Ministry of Environment and Water,” said Valentina Vasilyonova. Those present united around this proposal, and Minister Petar Dimitrov committed to participate personally in such a meeting.