FTTU held the first meeting with the new Minister of Transport and his team

Today, Plamen Dimitrov - President of CITUB, the Chairman of FTTU, Eng. Alexander Shopov and Petar Bunev - Chairman of SZH. held a first meeting with Grozdan Karadjov - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications. The meeting was also attended by Krasimira Stoyanova - former Acting Minister of Transport.

The Chairman of FTTU and the President of CITUB raised some of the most important questions related to water, air, and urban transport with the minister.

What is happening with the master plan of Port Varna?

• The master plan is expected to emerge from the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) as the minister promised to sign it without delay!

Has the Business Plan of "Port Varna" for 2025 been submitted to MTS? It includes the embarrassingly low 5% increase in remuneration.

FTTU declared that the expectations for salaries in the port sector are for a minimum 15% increase.

Minister Karadjov stated that the plan will be reviewed and salaries will be optimized according to possibilities.

What are the intentions of MTS regarding the concessioning of the state Port Terminals?

• Currently, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have been tasked to analyze the development of Port Varna East and West. Only after they are reviewed will decisions be made on how the port complexes will be developed.

What actions will MTS take for the operators of forklifts, reachstackers, and others, including heavy machinery and crane operators, who remain outside the scope of the occupational category regulation?

- FTTU insists on MTS's assistance for amending and supplementing the Occupational Categorization Regulation and including these workers within its scope.

- We received an assurance from the Minister that if MTS (as the leading Ministry) and the MF agree, MTS will support the proposal.

Problems were also discussed in "Sof Connect" AD such as insufficient staff to manage passenger flow and people with special needs, low pay levels for ground staff, and more.

• We received assurance that at an upcoming meeting with the management of SOF Connect these issues will be raised.

The lack of personnel in the Executive Agency "Automobile Administration" is also a serious problem. Additionally, low remuneration in the agency.

Minister Karadjov will check what the norms are in the European Union, what the workload is like. Relevant reports are also expected to summarize the results.

The Chairman of FTTU Eng. Alexander Shopov left a folder with more questions for Minister Karadjov, which the minister promised to review in detail.

The folder is expected to be sent to the respective field experts, and the corresponding reports to be prepared and handed over to the Federation.