BULGARIAN BUSINESS DEMANDS UPPING ALL RETIREMENT PENSIONS

The Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) is the only organization which insisted to not increase minimum wage without increasing all retirement pensions because this is the one moral way to do it.

The statement was made Monday by the BIA Chair, Bozhidar Danev, who pointed out all pensions must go up, not just the minimum ones.

"If we increase only the lowest pensions, we are in reality punishing those who make the most contributions to the social security budget," Danev said, cited by the Bulgarian news agency BGNES.

According to Danev, upping pensions would encourage demand while upping theminimum wage is a heavy blow to the labor market because it would lead to closures of small and medium companies, already suffering the heavy burden of the crisis. He added that such measure means loss of jobs, and uncertainty about the movement of the labor market and the level of demand.

The BIA Chair further stressed that there is no data on the effect of the previous increase of the minimum monthly wage from BGN 240 to BGN 270, pointing out BIAdemands such data before any legal changes are made.

Danev spoke for the media before the Monday meeting of the Three-Way Councilbetween the business, the trade unions and the cabinet.

He says the top priority should be protecting benefits included in the Labor Code.