The conflict between the Government and health and energy sector employees has continued to deepen.

Two of the most active professional groups, medics at Sofia’s Pirogov emergency centre and miners at Maritsa Iztok mining complex, received different treatment but reached the same result.

Miners from Maritsa Iztok, near the central Bulgaria town of Stara Zagora, felt the “hard hand” of the law on July 4.

More than 600 miners employed by the state-owned complex who gathered on the road to the company’s administration building were halted by police six km from the designated protest location. Refused access by bus, the miners continued on foot. At that point, apparently concerned that the miners would blockade the road, and later claiming that the miners threw objects at them, police fired teargas at the protesters.

TV cameras showed police pulling people out of the crowd, trying to restrain them.

Controversy ensued after footage showed a middle-aged miner, forced by police to bend double and with police grasping his hands behind his back, hitting his head on the pavement. Police later alleged that the miner, Kolyo Kolev, had gashed his head deliberately to gain attention. While being treated in hospital, Kolev rejected this allegation.

Interior Minister Roumen Petkov said that police had been under attack and had no other option but to respond to the attack.

Police alleged that the miners and Kolev in particular had attacked them with sticks, although such weapons were not seen in the footage broadcast.

“Everywhere else in the world when police officers are attacked they respond with serious effort,” Petkov told Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on July 9. “The miners did not have permission to stage their protests and we had to act in order to prevent a road blockade,” Petkov said. 

Miners want the Corporate Income Tax Act to be amended so that clothing and food allowances, holiday bonuses and pre-leave advance payments are exempt from income tax. They want the payroll fund of more than 40 per cent state or municipally owned companies to be free of regulation in 2007, and the retirement age to remain unchanged at 63. On July 10, miners met with the management of Maritsa Iztok and got their support. The two sides agreed that miners will get a 9.13 per cent additional payment on the basis of their gross salary. The average salary at Maritsa Iztok is 940 leva. That way the situation with the miners became a bit comical because they suddenly found themselves with the support of their employers who in a way represent the state.

On July 10, the miners said that they would go on strike as of July 16 unless their demands were met.

Maritsa Iztok head Ivan Markov said that if miners stopped work, Maritsa Iztok could survive on its own coal supplies for no more than 20 days.

“After that Bulgaria will have to import electricity at double the current price,” Markov told BNT on July 10.

Unlike the miners, Pirogov hospital medics did not clash with police. After meeting with Health Minister Radoslav Gaidarski on July 2, and after more than two months of daily protests for better working conditions and salary increases, the medics called off their protests.

An agreement was reached, saying that Gaidarski would appoint new management at Pirogov and saying that after the hospital is restructured, it will receive funds sufficient to allow salary increases. Gaidarski said that money would be allocated for repairs that were urgently needed, such as to the facade of the building.

But when it seemed the crisis was over, on July 10 the medics renewed their daily one-hour protests and said that they would go on strike as of July 13. The reason: “Gaidarski is not keeping his promises and we have no trust left in him,” Doctor Svetlozar Sardovski, head of the strike committee, told private national bTV on July 10.

According to Sardovski, the new management appointed by Gaidarski was made up of people who in one way or another had been part of Pirogov’s management over the past 17 years.

“It was part of the agreement that the management should not include people who have been part of Pirogov’s board since 1990,” Sardovski said. “We want this because we do not believe that these people can help Pirogov since they did not do so when they were on the board,” he said.

Gaidarski told bTV that he could not accept this condition because he would be violating the law by discriminating against certain people to prevent them getting public positions. “I know that this is part of the agreement but probably someone from my ministry did not see it when we were signing it,” Gaidarski said.

If nothing else, Gaidarski received the support of his boss, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev. On July 10 Stanishev told a news conference “Pirogov medics do not know what they want. We are ready to listen to them as long as their demands are reasonable,” he said. Sardovski read this as Stanishev’s support for Gaidarski. “Apparently Stanishev has heard only Gaidarski’s side and for that reason we want to meet with the parliamentary group of Bulgarian Socialist Party so that we can be understood,” Sardovski told bTV on July 11.

“If Pirogov closes down this will mean less money for them because patients will go somewhere else,” Gaidarski said.