Sisecam will put on the back-burner plans to double its investment in Bulgaria until the EU newcomer straightens out its contradictory labour regulations, Gulsum Azeri, vice president of the holding company & executive director of local subsidiary Trakia Glass Bulgaria, told a meeting of officials from international creditors. Over the past 3 years, Sisecam has launched 2 production units at its glass plant in Targovishte, NE Bulgaria, with as many due to become operational within weeks. The investment tally has run up to $220M. The project was the first to be granted state & local government support for the construction of the necessary infrastructure. Sisecam intended to diversify the product range of the Bulgarian plant & put in more production lines but was forced to put those plans on hold after running into problems with local trade unions. The Trakia Glass workers made pay rise demands in early 2007 despite the fact that the collective labour agreement signed by the management & trade unions in 2006 was yet to run out. The management has no recourse to litigation because the unionists are invoking the Settlement of Collective Labour Disputes Act which clashes with the labour code provisions & allows the staging of unregulated strike action, said Azeri. The dispute has been notified to economy minister Rumen Ovcharov but the state administration is yet to issue an official response, said Sisecam.
