Ambulance service workers protest for higher pay and better working conditions

Workers in emergency medical centres across the country protested Monday noon with  demands for pay rises, change in their category of work, measures to attract specialists to the ambulance service and tangible improvements to working conditions. 

From today until 13 November, every ambulance in Bulgaria will turn on its siren and lights for three minutes as a symbol of emergency medicine workers’ demands.

The protesters got organized on the social media. They say if their demands are not met, "the initiative will move on to further actions".

At the end of September, the government approved additional spending of BGN 9.8 million for the Health Ministry budget for 2022 and Health Minister Assen Medzhidiev said the money would be spent to compensate ambulance service medics and other workers across the country so that the salaries set out in the collective agreement could be achieved. Preliminary estimates showed that doctors would be compensated with approximately BGN 600 per month, feldshers with BGN 400, nurses with BGN 350 and ambulance drivers with about BGN 150. These additional funds are to be received from October until the end of the year.

The protesters demand that they continue to be paid after January 1, 2023.