How will the TUFEMI fight for wage growth in the Ministry of Interior?

The 2024 Draft Budget does not provide for salary increases for police officers. Member of the management board of the Trade Union Federation of the Employees in the Ministry of Interior /TUFEMI/ Genadi Tenev commented for Iskra.bg that they will insist on such. According to him, for years they have been struggling to do something in this direction, namely:

„Over the years, there was a curious thing – the difference between the minimum wage /MW/ as an amount compared to the one with the lowest remuneration in the Ministry of Interior of the most mass staff on the ground, was between BGN 200-300. That’s more or less where we’re going again, if it weren’t for the increases that happened this year and last year, with which inflation caught up. The Draft Budget for 2024 envisages an increase only in the lowest salary for employees of the Ministry of Interior, working under an employment relationship, and that is because it is tied to the Ministry of Labor and Welfare for the country, and it has a new amount from January 1, 2024. According to Art. 180, para. 3 of the Interior Ministry Ac. the lowest salary cannot be less than the minimum wage for the country. This base and amount is also speculated on, because it is bet exactly as much as the amount of the МW, given that the law allows for the possibility of a higher amount. The lowest must be no less than the МВ for the country. For years, this „no less“ has been forgotten and they read only „as many as the МВ for the country“ and for years there have been employees with МW. This problem affects the lowest-income employees in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, again condemning them to incomes and a life of the social minimum. For the rest of the employees in the Ministry of Interior, no increase in basic salaries is foreseen.“

When asked what percentage increase they would want, Tenev answered: „It’s all a matter of calculations and percentages. We have a strategy and for years we have been trying to change the current bases on which the lowest salaries of civil servants in the Ministry of Interior with status under the Ministry of Interior and employees under employment law are determined. Our goal is to tie these wages to the average wage in the country for the second quarter of the year, that is, the average wage for the period „April, May, June“ is taken as a basis. We have focused on this period because it provides an opportunity for forecasting when preparing the Draft Budget for the following year. The Draft Budget is developed in the summer and should be voted on in the fall. That is, to have the possibility of predictability in its preparation. Currently in Art. 177, para. 2 of the Ministry of Interior, there is a basis for determining the lowest salaries for civil servants occupying the lowest executive position and the lowest junior executive position. This base is approved annually by the Law on the State Budget and is BGN 390, and has not been changed for perhaps 13 years. This is the basis on which, with coefficients relative to it, the lowest basic salaries for positions with secondary and higher education in the Ministry of Interior are determined. Therefore, according to a vague algorithm, for each higher post they increase.“

According to the trade unionist, what the TUFEMI is proposing has economic logic, because in this way the employees will be stimulated to do their work even better, there will be better security in this country and better conditions for developing business, economy and hence the country’s revenue and GDP growth. When the latter increases, the average wages will rise, and with that the salaries of the employees of the Ministry of the Interior will also increase. Thus, the salaries of these employees will logically and realistically follow the incomes in the country, in the conditions of empathy, and there will be no social tension and protest actions for such indexation and unforeseen expenses for the budget.

In addition to social security, it will also be achieved financially, by forecasting the necessary expenses in the budget. Even after the end of the proposed period /from which to use data for the base/, it will be possible to forecast the necessary budget for these expenses in the next year, which will undoubtedly be useful in the preparation of the state budget and in particular of the Ministry of Interior.

„This is the economic indicator to which the basic salaries in the Ministry of Interior should be tied. At the first vote in the National Assembly passed the Interior Ministry Act containing texts with such proposals. In it we also have other proposals of ours that we consider important, but the one with salaries is one of the main ones. Due to the vacation in connection with the local elections, this Bill to Amend and Complement the Ministry of Interior Act has not yet been voted on in the second reading. It is scheduled as item 2 of the agenda for the meeting of the Committee on Internal Security and Public Order scheduled for November 30. We hope that by the end of the year it will be a fact,“, he also commented.

The TUFEMI has other proposals for changes in the Ministry of Interior Act. Among them is to bring back the two-instance appeal of disciplinary punishments of Interior Ministry employees.

„For years, the possibility of a two-instance appeal of imposed disciplinary punishments other than „dismissal“ has been abolished in the Ministry of Interior Act and the Civil Service Act. The curious fact is that this opportunity was lost for civil servants of the Ministry of Interior and for civil servants with status under the Civil Service Act, but remained for employees and workers with status under the Labor Code and the Law on Judiciary. What happens – some employees and some workers are treated in one way and others in another. What this leads to is an ugly case law. When there is no second instance to control the mistakes and errors made by the first instance, then such cannot be corrected and, accordingly, adequate justice for a state governed by the rule of law cannot be obtained. On this topic years ago, we alerted the president and the ombudsman with the idea of ​​appealing to the Constitutional Court, but we were told that it was not discriminatory and the Constitution was respected. Now we hope that with this Bill to Amend and Complement the Ministry of Interior Act, this injustice will be removed,“, he explained