CITUB and Podkrepa Protest Against Budget Changes

The trade unions from the two confederations — CITUB and the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa — are staging a protest today at 2:00 p. m. They oppose the proposed changes to the draft budget for the current year, which they say will lead to a reduction in personnel costs and to social security contributions being transferred to civil servants, the two unions said. An extraordinary meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC) is also scheduled for the same time in the Granite Hall of the Council of Ministers building, where the draft state budget for 2026 will be discussed.

The unions are demanding the repeal of the Civil Servants Act and the related secondary legislation so that all employees in the administration have equal rights and obligations. They are also calling for the planned reduction in budget funds for remuneration and the freezing of incomes to be cancelled, for no cuts to be made in administrative structures without a prior analysis of the situation in each individual institution, and for additional human resources to be provided for the most heavily burdened administrations.

Among the fiscal consolidation measures is a freeze on personnel costs, with no increase planned in remuneration linked to the growth of the average or minimum wage, as well as to collective labour agreements. The budget is expected to save more than 560 million as a result.

The agenda of the meeting includes the draft budgets of the National Health Insurance Fund for 2026, the state social security budget for 2026 and the state budget of the Republic of Bulgaria for 2026, as well as the budgets of the National Social Security Institute (NSSI) and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).