In the period 6 – 7 September 2022, a delegation of seven people from TUFEMI visited the project’s partner organization Fagforbundet. The visit was planned as activity of the project “Decent work’s latest challenge: risk and stress management”, funded by Innovation Norway.
During the exchange visit, both the structure and principles of work of Fagforbundet and the key elements of the Norwegian model, that make it so successful and effective, were presented. The first day included a presentation of the police union, which is part of Unio, as well as the role of municipalities and employers in collective bargaining, presented by KS.
The second working day continued with a presentation of the activity and the main challenges faced by TUFEMI in the social dialogue and working conditions, as well the program to fight and prevent cancer among firefighters in Norway. As part of the exchange visit, a fire station was also visited, where both the equipment of the fire trucks and the firefighters, were shown and working conditions were discussed.
The delegation from TUFEMI made several main conclusions as a result of the exchange visit, which are as follows:
The differences between the working conditions and the social dialogue in Bulgaria and Norway are huge and they are not so much caused by the different welfare of the countries, but because of the difference in the way of thinking and the attitude towards the employees, employers and the government officials. While in Bulgaria, the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are treated as a tool and are considered as easily replaceable contractors, in Norway, for the social partners, every single person is important and for them is a key element of the creation of the State of the welfare.
A two-day online workshop was held on March 12 and 13, 2020, with the participation of the members of the Managing Board of TUFEMI and the project partners from Fagforbundet and KS.
Mr. Stefan Balabanov – Deputy Minister of Interior also took part in the workshop. He was congratulating the participants and shared his high expectations for the results that will be achieved not only by the workshop, but also by the whole project.
During the workshop the history of the trade unions in the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Bulgaria was presented, the accumulated trade union experience and culture regarding the firefighters and the police were shared.
The Norwegian partners shared their basic principles of work in law enforcement and fire departments and talked about the interaction between the services responsible for safe and decent working conditions and trade unions.
Representatives of the TUFEMI showed great interest in the social packages provided to trade union members in the Kingdom of Norway in terms of working conditions and minimum (basic) conditions that must be guaranteed by the employer, as well as the way in which they are organized. and negotiations on safe and decent working conditions and negotiation mechanisms.
On the second day of the workshop, the policies and practices regarding decent working conditions that can be adapted by the Kingdom of Norway and implemented in Bulgaria and in particular in the Ministry of Interior and the way to structure these proposals were discussed. to be presented to the Minister of Interior in Bulgaria.