Laid-off workers from Maritsa Iztok 3 power plant do not wish to retrain

Fear of changes in the workplace, zero desire for retraining and remaining hope that the coal-fired power plants have a future, and they can continue operating. This is the overall picture of attitudes among the miners who were working at the ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 TPP, which is scheduled to shut down. Lyuben Georgiev, Head of the Intermediary Services Department at the Employment Agency - Labor Bureau in Stara Zagora, who took part in the "Just Transition in Stara Zagora" conference, organized by Brand Media Bulgaria in partnership with the Regional Economic Development Agency - Stara Zagora (SZEDA) and the Europe Direct Center - Stara Zagora, spoke about this situation.

The event was a part of the EU-funded project "Career Transition of Opportunities" (TOP JOBS).

Most of the plant's employees were laid off in two major waves last year - in May and August. After the TPP resumed operations for a few months at the beginning of this year, many of the people from these layoffs were brought back to work, while others found work at the state-owned Maritsa Iztok 2 TPP.

Most of them continue to live with the thought that they will return to work in one of the energy complexes," Lyuben Georgiev told Economic.bg.

He added that the main goal of his agency was to eliminate the fear and anxiety of changing jobs "and to communicate that being laid off is an opportunity to start a new job." 

To our surprise, the percentage of ContourGlobal workers who decided to retrain was quite small. Their desire for reskilling is close to zero."

He opined that the main problem was that these people were relatively well-paid and narrowly specialized in their professions.

New layoffs

A third wave of mass layoffs at ContourGlobal is coming in April, and the Labor Bureau in Radnevo has received an application for the dismissal of 135 people, with the process scheduled to take place throughout that month.

According to the Employment Agency, a total of 184 people currently work at the coal-fired power plant, and after the layoffs, there will be 49.

About 50-60% of those laid off come from Stara Zagora, 25-30% are from Galabovo and Radnevo, and small numbers come from the neighboring municipalities of Haskovo, Dimitrovgrad and Simeonovgrad. 

When asked if there are job opportunities in the region, he was emphatical:

Yes, there are opportunities, all unemployed people will be offered adequate work."

During the previous mass layoff, the Employment Agency held a job fair a week before the miners received the dismissal notices. The goal was to let them know what was offered on the labor market so that those who wanted to avoid a period of unemployment could directly transition to another job.

The majority of these workers are closely specialized in thermal energy production, but we hope that our region will not lose these specialists," Georgiev said.

Therefore, the Agency is partnering closely with the Municipality of Stara Zagora to analyze what type of investors will eventually set up shops in the local industrial zone and whether they will need such specialists.

Unemployment in Stara Zagora

In the Stara Zagora, unemployment is 4.2%, which puts the region in fifth place in the country after Sofia, Varna, Gabrovo and Burgas. For the city of Stara Zagora alone, that rate is 2.6%, which is half the average unemployment rate in Bulgaria, according to the Agency's data.

55% of the unemployed are low-skilled and have no professional experience, but they still have many opportunities.

In Stara Zagora, there is also a Vocational Education Center, where the unemployed receive additional training, free programs and subsidies so they can improve their qualifications.

Co-Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Managing Authority. Neither the European Union nor the Managing Authority can be held responsible for them.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov