The Security trade union alliance at the interior ministry has spoken out against plans to sack staff with disability rulings from Bulgaria's medical panel, known as TELK, along with working pensioners at the ministry. The union set out its position in an open letter to interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev.
Union members say they have heard reports of planned layoffs among staff who hold a TELK disability rating. They say the ministry is also getting ready to dismiss, en masse, state employees who have retired but carried on working.
"We firmly oppose sacking employees with TELK rulings just to suit the moment and throwing them onto the job market," the alliance wrote.
The union says these employees' illnesses — most often heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and nerve damage — come from poor conditions and the strain of working at the interior ministry. People apply to work at the ministry, the union points out, not to suffer a heart attack or a stroke.
If the layoffs go ahead anyway, the union wants a law guaranteeing these employees other posts at the interior ministry or in state or local government, on favorable terms. Dismissals, the alliance says, should never be an end in themselves or be carried out arbitrarily, for the sake of economic or political convenience.
For working pensioners, the union proposes a different fix. Since the state no longer wants this arrangement, it could simply be dropped for good, while those already covered by it keep their current status. State employees retire at around 55. Under this approach, the number of working pensioners would fall by roughly 20% a year on average — and within five years, the alliance reckons, there would be none left.
The union is asking for a meeting with the interior ministry's leadership and wants written information right away on what the ministry plans to do.
In May, at a meeting with unions at the interior ministry, Demerdzhiev said: "There will be no layoffs without analysis, but there will be streamlining in departments with overlapping duties," aimed at making the ministry's work more efficient. At the time, the minister blamed the state's tough financial situation on spending since the start of the year and on decisions made by previous governments, and said the goal was to get out of the situation by 2026. After that, he said, the ministry would look for a fair and clear way to set state employees' pay across all fields.