The Education Union of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour opposes plans to cut money for teachers' formal clothing and training. It also wants a bill on the Bulgarian language withdrawn. The union's chairman is Dr Yulian Petrov.
The union proposes a national debate with teachers and academics on whether Bulgaria needs such a law at all. Its statement says: "We at Podkrepa believe the Bulgarian language is not in danger!"
The bill comes from Vazrazhdane. It passed its first reading in parliament on 4 November with 153 votes in favour, unanimously. The DPS did not vote.
To refine the text, MPs allowed the maximum three weeks for proposals between the two readings. The second reading will come after that.
The authors say the law creates a full legal framework for state language policy. It covers the use of standard Bulgarian in education, administration, the media and electronic communication.
The union disagrees. It says the proposals will add an administrative burden for teachers and will not solve the problem of literacy. In its view, a language is protected by good education, support for teachers and consistent state policy, not by new formal rules. Podkrepa calls the bill scandalous.
The union also objects to limits on formal clothing, which it calls unacceptable. Under the Pre-school and School Education Act (Article 219, paragraph 4), teachers are entitled each calendar year to clothing paid for from the budget of their school or kindergarten. The collective labour agreement for pre-school and school education guarantees the same right.
It also opposes limits on training, meaning courses, seminars and professional meetings. The law requires teachers to improve their skills every year (Article 221, paragraph 3), and head teachers must provide the conditions for it (Article 221, paragraph 4). Under the collective agreement, at least 1.2% of the yearly pay budget for teaching staff goes to training.
The union calls the treatment of teachers discriminatory and wants the government to change it. It also says these decisions break social dialogue and devalue what the social partners agreed.
If training is cut, teachers cannot meet their legal duties and the quality of teaching suffers, the union warns. It says training is an investment, not a cost that can be cut. The statement says: "You cannot expect better quality of education when rights guaranteed by law are cut at the same time."