Minister of Culture met with representatives of the protesting workers in cultural institutions

The Minister of Culture Krastyu Krastev on December 6 met with representatives of the creative unions, the unions "Podkrepa" and CITUB, as well as cultural institutes regarding the changes in funding in the field of culture and the increase in wages in the sector. This was announced by the ministry, after employees of cultural institutions on December 6 protested because of the budget for culture and the low pay in the sector.

Workers in cultural institutions protest, demands for higher pay

Minister Krastev explained to those present that in implementation of a decree of the Council of Ministers, new expenditure standards were approved by his order, and in this way the directors of cultural institutes have the opportunity to reasonably increase the salaries of people in the sector, which is also fully within their powers.

Deputy Minister Viktor Stoyanov pointed out that during the last meeting of the Committee on Culture and the Media, the Ministry of Culture has already made a specific proposal to drop the two restrictions in the Law on the Protection and Development of Culture regarding the average price of a ticket and for the over-implementation of revenues.

Minister Krastev also informed that the team of the Ministry of Culture is working to be ready ahead of schedule with the changes in the amendment to the Methodology for financing the state cultural institutes in the field of performing arts included in the government programme. At the moment, a comprehensive analysis of the system is being carried out, which will help cultural institutes to be able to forecast their required budgets for each subsequent year from the month of September of the previous one. Representatives of creative unions and cultural institutes will be involved in the work on the Methodology. The other key change that will help boost wages in the sector is the proposal for a component to guarantee minimum remuneration costs to be included in the uniform cost standards. Representatives of the interested parties will also be included in the working group that will draw up this proposal, which will be adopted by a Decree of the Council of Ministers.

Another working group with representatives from the interested parties will look for mechanisms for additional financing of the municipal cultural institutes from the state. Legislative changes will be proposed after a full analysis of the legislation and the system.

The participants in the talks, which lasted more than two and a half hours, united around the thesis that culture is an extremely important investment in the future of this country, and the representatives of the creative unions, the trade unions "Pokrepa" and CITUB, as well as cultural institutes, promised full support of the Ministry of Culture in its mission to protect this key state priority.

The planned increase in the budget of the Ministry of Culture for 2024 is over BGN 68 million, or 19% more than the budget for the year 2023.