On October 31, the Government sent to Parliament the issue of the teachers’ strike that has endured since September 15.
On that day, the draft Budget 2008 was sent to MPs for debate and a decision on approval. Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski told commercial national bTV the same day that “now it is up to MPs to take care of teachers’ demands for increased salaries”. This carefully played move by the Government added to an already complex and controversial situation for the teachers on strike. After more than a month of protests and a series of public rallies, the strike seemed to become ever more fragmented, with little chance of success in getting more money from the Government, and a number of teachers and schools deciding to return to work. Parents frustrated and paying out of pocket because of having to find ways to look after their children also seemed to be losing sympathy with the strikers.
A key event in changing the public mood towards teachers was the “almost signed agreement” on October 29.
When teachers went on strike on September 15, their main demand was for a 100 per cent salary increase. It took teachers’ union representatives and Education Minister Daniel Vulchev, supported by Oresharski, several weeks to agree that a 100 per cent increase was an unreasonable demand that could threaten the country’s financial stability despite the 3.5 billion leva budget surplus. In the fourth week of October, after almost daily meetings and negotiations between teachers’ trade unions and Vulchev, it seemed that the two sides had reached a compromise.
On October 26, a day before the municipal elections, the Education Ministry put on its website a “provisional agreement” with the trade unions. The ministry said that the unions had accepted the agreement and it seemed it was only a matter of time before it would be signed. The 15-point draft agreement provided for an 80 leva increase of teachers’ salaries to 524 leva as of October 1. The monthly pay of the non-teaching staff was agreed to be 283 leva. These packages did not include pay differentials and extra monthly salaries. Between January 1 and July 1 2008, the average teacher’s gross salary was to reach 650 leva, and the starting teachers’ pay was to be increased from 299 leva now to 450 leva. This meant that the highest salary for a teacher in July 2008 could be 785 leva.
Other points in the draft addressed schools’ delegated budgets, private lessons and matriculation exams.
Trade unions said they would request a mandate from teachers to sign a final agreement that would end the strike. The agreement was to be put to a vote in every school around the country on October 29, and the notion spread by Vulchev and trade union leaders was that it would be accepted and children would be back to school on October 30. Such a vote did happen. But as the municipal elections produced results other than those predicted, so did the voting on the agreement. At a news conference on October 29, teachers’ trade unions said that the majority of teachers had rejected the proposed agreement. A total of 55 per cent of the teachers have voted against the agreement, trade unions said, which meant that they would agree with the majority. Some controversy arose from the way trade unions had come up with the results of the voting, since they themselves admitted that there had been a problem with the data processing. It turned out that they could not tell whether the 55 per cent meant teachers as individuals or teaching staff of a certain school. The message at the end was that the agreement was rejected and the strike would continue. Vulchev immediately expressed his “astonishment at the teachers’ behaviour”, apparently forgetting that the agreement had the word “provisional” in its title. His reaction added to the feeling that teachers were inconsistent in their demands. The Government’s game of cat and mouse has paid off.
However, some of the reasons cited by teachers showed that their disagreement was not without reasonable grounds. What teachers actually disliked was that the agreement did not provide for the desired increase of the funds spent on education in 2008. Teachers wanted 4.7 per cent of GDP to be allocated for education in 2008 while Vulchev and Oresharshki offered 4.2 per cent of GDP. Another complaint was that the salary increase written in the agreement was in leva but not in per cent, which given inflation most certainly would mean that the increase would have no effect. Teachers also disagreed with the idea of reforms in Bulgaria’s secondary education, more precisely the idea that school headmasters would have delegated budgets to use as they choose, as opposed to the current situation when the money for each school comes from the municipality. The ministry said that every headmaster would be able to plan a budget and eventually save funds that could go for further increases of teachers’ salaries. According to the trade unions, the delegated budgets would mean that schools would be left on their own and there would be no money for any kind of increase and even this idea might lead to headmaster firing staff to stay within the budget and cover expenses.
On October 30, trade unions presented the ministry with their own draft agreement. It said that the average gross monthly salary in secondary education should be increased twice in 2008 – in January and July – so as to reach the target figure of 650 leva. This monthly wage had to be ensured by the unified standard of cost per student, the application of delegated school budgets, the standards for teachers’ workload and the average figures for numbers of students per class. Trade unions insisted on a starting teachers’ salary of no less than 508 leva as of July 2008. In the previous draft agreement this figure was 450 leva. According to the trade unions, the unified standard of cost per student should be increased as of January 2008 from the current 993 leva to no less than 1151 leva, and to no less than 1381 leva as of July 2008. The funds for this increase must come from the 2008 budget, trade unions said. Vulchev’s reply was simple. “The Government is prepared to continue talks to find a solution to the strike after the proposed agreement is discussed at the November 1 Cabinet meeting.”
The sending of the draft budget to Parliament, however, meant that there was little if any chance that the teachers would succeed. The ruling majority has backed Vulchev consistently so far, making it unlikely that the budget would be revised. This means that teachers will get a salary increase of 80 leva in July next year and funds for education will be 4.2 per cent of GDP. With the fight almost lost, teachers throughout Bulgaria started getting back to work. To reporters, they cited their disappointment with way that the unions had conducted the negotiations and that more than a month with no income was not something their family budgets could endure for long. With some teachers still on strike, all that parents could do was to phone their childrens’ schools every day to find out whether teachers had come to work.
