Employees of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) all over Bulgaria started a symbolic strike by ceasing work for an hour on October 29 demanding higher wages and better working conditions, Dnevnik daily said.

The strike action would continue every day until successful negotiations were held with the management on wage increase and other measures, said Bagryana Markova, head of the Podrepa Labour Confederation trade union affiliate in the NHIF, as quoted by Dnevnik. The average monthly wage of the expert personnel of the regional branches of the NHIF was less than 400 leva, with the highest reaching no more than 480 leva, said Markova.

She said all the fund’s offices around the country were on strike, except for the general headquarters in Sofia, as well as the offices in Haskovo and Vidin. The negotiations should have been called by the NHIF executive director Rumyana Todorova. She and the board of directors of the fund however, had only been shifting the responsibility between each other and stalled the procedure.

The protest was aimed at the public, which should understand the problems of the NHIF experts, and that the latter did not work in luxury offices, did not drive expensive cars and were not paid well, contrary to some popular beliefs, said Markova. The NHIF was the only institution that was protecting the rights of the health-insured citizens of Bulgaria, Markova said. At the same time, the system was unable to keep its experts because of the low wages, she said.