On December 04, 2024, a meeting of the Council for Social Cooperation in Transport (CSCT) was held at the Sofia Municipality.

The meeting was attended by the Deputy Mayor for Transport Eng. Iliyan Pavlov, Ivan Nikolov - Director of the "Transport" Directorate, as well as representatives of the Federation of Transport Trade Unions (FTTU): Vladimir Tsvetanov - Chairman of "Stolichen Avtotransport" TU, Emilia Ivanova - Chairwoman of "Stolichen Elektrotransport" TU, and fellow chairpersons from the structures of FTTU.

Main topics of the meeting were:

The ongoing negligence on the part of the state and the lack of payment of compensations for preferential travel cards to Sofia Municipality and a large part of the rest of the municipalities in the country, against the backdrop of rising costs and the critical need to stabilize the "Transport" sector, require the state to immediately pay off its debts to prevent the risk of cities being left without public transport.

The results of the ongoing campaign for recruiting drivers and service staff were reported.

Since the beginning of the campaign, there have been over 7 million views of the advertisement, but only 546 applications, which eventually equal 60 job applications, and only in Stolichen Elektrotransport (tram drivers).

FTTU insisted that the development plan for newly hired employees, aimed at ensuring long-term employment and career development, including training, qualifications, and motivation-boosting measures, be set in motion.

In this regard, the federation will prepare and send its proposals to Sofia Municipality.

The activities of the working conditions committees and the need for the companies to provide up-to-date information on their work were reviewed.

FTTU continues to believe that the companies do not listen to the demands of the workers participating in these committees.

The timetables of the night transport were discussed.

The federation insists on reviewing the need to provide night transport throughout the week, especially in conditions of extremely insufficient staff.

The need to expand the bus lane network, install surveillance cameras, and strengthen control by the Ministry of Interior over violators was discussed.

Upcoming public procurements were discussed for:

Rolling stock;Spare parts;Workwear;Improvement of the physical infrastructure in depots and garages.

The trade unions and Sofia Municipality will start negotiations as early as January to prepare a new agreement for social cooperation and salary increase, which FTTU will insist on.