by Yoanna Arabadzheva, Alexander Goudev and Plamen Markov

During the Spring 2020 semester, students taking Social Policy and Politics in the EU course worked in groups to  socially-oriented campaigns. In their presentations and campaign descriptions they were to outline the rationale for your campaign; measures / actions that the campaign will involve; its target audience as well as its projected outcomes. On the course’s website, we will present several of their ideas in the form of separate posts.

The recent CORONA-19 pandemic has deeply affected the entire world. Many businesses have had to close down, oil prices have dropped and more importantly people are unable to find work. Due to many workers not being essential and to protect themselves, they have been told to remain at home and not go outside without need. While for some this is a pleasant vacation from the huge amounts of work and others can work from home if need be, for many people, especially in Bulgaria, this is a complete nightmare. The statistic shows that the unemployment rate for March 2020 stood at 6.7%. There are 220,072 unemployed people registered at the Bulgarian public employment center, with many of them (26,286) registered after the emergency situation. The hotel and restaurants sectors are the one most affected by these changes as they typically employ low-skilled temporary labor. The people working in this sector can barely make ends meet, usually moving from one job to another or only being able to work part-time. Measures need to be introduced to help these workers recover once the situation returns to normal.

The Bulgarian authorities have put forward the 60/40 assistance scheme as a way to deal with the economic situation after the pandemic. The plan is for the state to pay 60% of the expenses on wages and social-security benefits to the employer so he can keep his employees and not have to fire them. The other 40% is paid by the employer himself. The scheme will target the sectors that will be most affected by this change, including tourism and restaurants and etc. As they usually rely on part-time workers, this will be important. In order to qualify, employers will either have to have been closed by order of the state or closed on their own and prove that they would incur losses from the business being stopped. 

On paper the scheme looks fine but in reality it is flawed. First, to cover 40% of the labor-related expenses can be too much for some of the sectors. Without revenue, they cannot contribute their share of workers’ pay and social payments. Another issue is that the process itself can be confusing or some aspects not being well implemented, such as those related to electronic signatures. As such many companies will be unable to make use of this scheme and have to lay off workers anyway.

The goal of the campaign is to give the people from the restaurant and night club sector a voice. Due to the circumstances a regular protest is impossible, so we will organize an online one. Chairs with signs with the names of all participating night clubs and restaurants will be placed in front of the Council of Ministers, separated by 2 meters from each other, as the official social distancing requirement has it. On a large screen near the chairs, the demands of the owners and managers of these companies for more financial support will be broadcast from Facebook. These would include, first and foremost, the change of the proportion of the scheme’s assistance from 60/40 to 80/20 measure as well as a tax break until the end of the year. The outcome of the campaign will be to have these demands be heard and possibly discussed with the relevant ministers. Our social partners are the associations of hoteliers and restaurants.

by Alexandra Gouleva, Evita Kuriga and Laine Ostrovska

During the Spring 2020 semester, students taking Social Policy and Politics in the EU course worked in groups to  socially-oriented campaigns. In their presentations and campaign descriptions they were to outline the rationale for your campaign; measures / actions that the campaign will involve; its target audience as well as its projected outcomes. On the course’s website, we will present several of their ideas in the form of separate posts.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has brought about a world health and economic crisis with many people having to transition to working remotely with the exception of workers in industries EU governments have deemed “essential.” These essential workers often fulfill jobs and duties that are low-paid and underappreciated by the general society until the pandemic hit. This pandemic has served to highlight and exacerbate the issues these workers have been facing for years. 

Many who work in the food service, gig-economy, healthcare, factories and more have no choice and are forced to continue working in unsafe environments because their wages are well below the standard of living and they cannot risk unemployment. Many of them do not receive hazard pay, nor do employers increase their wages for their work or provide them with PPE. Statistics and news reports do well to exemplify the reality of the working conditions and treatment of essential workers in these particular sectors.

The goal of the campaign is to bring awareness to the reality essential workers face and fight for their essential rights, pay, and treatment. The campaign will focus on bringing awareness of the issue to the general public and also work closely with social partners in order to ensure the EU and companies will act effectively, so that there can be a change on a national and European level. Public mobilization will be achieved through an active social media presence and cooperation with news outlets to cover essential workers’ stories. Using external lobbying we will target EU institutions, companies, and social partners to motivate them to reach agreements and pass laws that will protect essential workers and their rights. 

Social partners have a very important role for the campaign success. We will work to engage with them the most due their access to the EU policy makers and ability to protect essential workers’ rights through sectoral or company bargaining as well as tripartite with the government. We will engage social partners such as ETUC, CEEP and others. Especially trade unions can do a lot. Our campaign will encourage people to join trade unions to call out employers about inadequate policies, sign petitions to call on the EU to act on specific measures, organize protests/strikes, etc. It is vital for our campaign that social partners push harder for better wages and workplace conditions. Discussions need to take place at the local, sector, administration, and firm level to promote a more effective response to the problems experienced by essential workers. 

The projected outcomes of the campaign and solutions are for the EU and social partners to agree on stricter standards for working conditions, as well as to protect workers’ physical and mental health. We aim to maximize financial benefits and protections for essential workers such as unemployment benefits and hazard pay. We hope the campaign will be a step in the right direction of securing a living wage standard across the EU and will bring a greater appreciation for essential workers.

During the Spring 2020 semester, students taking Social Policy and Politics in the EU course worked in groups to  socially-oriented campaigns. In their presentations and campaign descriptions they were to outline the rationale for your campaign; measures / actions that the campaign will involve; its target audience as well as its projected outcomes. On the Module’s website, we will present several of their ideas in the form of separate posts.

Campaign in Support of Roma Communities amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Zdravko Cherkezov, Milka Stoycheva and Sofija Gajic

The COVID-19 pandemic is a defining moment in European history. For Roma communities, it is a life-or-death moment. There are 12 million Roma dispersed all around Europe, and most of them live in shanty towns with no access to water, electricity, or sanitation: a recipe for disaster during a COVID-19 pandemic. In Bulgaria, the home of 750 000 Roma people, misery and starvation loom as large as the threat of the invisible virus. With 86% at-risk poverty rate, and 55% pre-crisis unemployment rate among Bulgarian Roma, a socioeconomic crisis was always going to hit Roma people the hardest, but the COVID-19 crisis is the worst possible scenario. Since the Roma people have mainly been active in the informal sector, they are completely excluded from these emerging corona-response related social protection measures. Without an income or social support, thousands are left without the means by which to purchase food. It is paramount that we act to change that.

In response to these challenges, we have created a campaign whose main goal is to create opportunities for informed dialogue between government officials and the Bulgairian civil society. We will work to help NGOs voice their demands and influence the national strategy with regards to the treatment of Roma people amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. 

By means of open letters, petitions, and organized discussion panels between stakeholders we will put forward a number of proposals for the better treatment of the Roma community. Among the main propositions are the permanent removal of the walls around all Roma neighborhoods, the establishment of facilities for clean running water, the mobilization of a bigger number of health mediators for the purpose of informing the Roma communities about the disease, as well as the provision of social safety net for the Roma, who have lost all sources of income due to the crisis. We will also use traditional and non-traditional media channels to raise awareness among the Bulgarian citizens about the campaign. 

The whole European community has a great interest in improving the treatment of the Roma in the current crisis. We urge fellow Member States, such as Romania and Slovakia, to join our campaign. The Roma deserve to live better lives, and with urgent action now, we hope to deliver such promise. Who knows, maybe after the crisis Europe will emerge with an EU-wide Roma Strategy.