Company increases manufacturing wages by 10% from May and proposes further growth in September
The Executive Director of LB Bulgaricum Zhivko Zhivkov visited the production base of the company in Vidin to talk with the employees and to get acquainted with their working conditions.
‘The goal was to go on site, hear their issues first hand and discuss together what could be improved in the workflow’, he said.
Zhivko Zhivkov took over the state-owned dairy company in early June after the Minister of Economy and Industry, Dr. Petko Nikolov, asked the company’s principal, State Consolidation Company, to urgently replace the previous management and appoint a new one. The demand for resignations then came after a meeting of the minister with the trade unions and protesting employees of LB Bulgaricum, during which a number of accumulated problems were highlighted, which were also enshrined in a Protest Declaration of the workers in Vidin. These included disruption of dialogue between workers and management, demands for an increase in basic wages, for the provision of specialised work wear, for compliance with working conditions, and reports of a large amount of stockpiled finished products that risked not being marketed.
In front of the new executive director, employees in Vidin confirmed their demands.
‘The first thing we can do is to immediately increase wages by 10 percent from 1 May 2024 for all employees in the production base in Vidin and in the Malashevtsi base’, Zhivkov said. He added that in three months’ time, in early September, new negotiations will be held on salary increases depending on the results achieved so as to fully meet the demands of the employees.
‘On the remaining topics we have to make estimates and strategy that will meet the needs of the workers as quickly as possible, so that the result is maximum efficiency of work in the production facility and achieving satisfaction for the workers’, said Zhivkov. He was adamant that he would meet the needs of the employees with reason and dialogue.
The management of LB Bulgaricum also pledged to meet the demands of the protesters during talks with the leadership of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions in the Food Industry of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria on Wednesday, which was also attended by the leadership of the State Consolidation Company. During the talks, representatives of the state-owned companies confirmed the implementation of the demands in the employees’ protest declaration. It was also confirmed that the Company’s Business Programme includes investment in capital expenditure.