At the beginning of 2020, the Sevlievo brass orchestra was left without the flute and tuba performers. A commission of accountant, sound engineer and organizer decided that without the two instruments the orchestra would be able to continue performing its repertoire and even can enrich it.
The reason for the decision was the reduction of the staff and the subsequent selection of musicians. The fact that the only ones fired from the 18-member orchestra played at the closing of the election campaign of Bogomil Petkov – an opponent of the mayor of Sevlievo Ivan Ivanov (GERB) elected for a third term in the fall of 2019, is probably a coincidence, the regional edition ”Sevlievo online” writes.
So far, the staff cuts in the Sevlievo brass orchestra have cost the taxpayers more than BGN 3,000 without counting the fees of lawyers from a Sofia company hired to defend the dismissals in court, where the laid-offs have been contesting them. In the first instance, cases in which the difference is mainly in the name of the musician and the instrument he/she plays with are resolved differently. The District Court in Sevlievo reinstated the musician who played the tuba, the Municipality appealed the decision, but the District Court in Gabrovo upheld it.
The lady flutist lost in the first instance, but the Gabrovo District Court annuls that decision and ruled that she should be reinstated.
With this, the costs of the cases will continue to grow, because the case is expected to be transferred to the Supreme Court of Cassation, where the Municipality has a one-month deadline for appeal, “Sevlievo Online” writes.
In the offices of the Municipality
The decision the Sevlievo orchestra to remain without a tuba and flute was taken in the building of the Municipality of Sevlievo in the first days of 2020. This is clear from the testimony before the court of Plamen Drashkov, leader of the orchestra. After learning about the upcoming laid-offs, the leader said that this is not possible. At the subsequent meeting in the Municipality he was told that there was no other option, and he had to give recommendations without whom the orchestra could go on.
The Municipality set a condition to him – to keep these instruments, which will maintain a repertoire of any genre of music, suitable for various events. With this condition, the leader decided that he could deprive himself of the tuba and flute, because “their absence will not affect the authentic sound of the orchestra, as their sound overlaps with other instruments with a wider range of sounds.”
Assessment and selection
On January 10, a commission appointed by the director of the “Mara Belcheva” House of Culture performs an assessment and selection of the musicians. The commission comprised an accountant, an organizer and a sound engineer.
It is not clear from the court documents whether as of the date of the assessment the commission was aware of Drashkov’s decision, i.e. that the lack of a tuba and flute will not affect the sound of the orchestra. Judging by the history of the two cases described in the court decisions, the choice to drop out the two instruments took place in the first days of January, i.e. it is assumed that the commission knew without which instruments it was already decided that the orchestra would continue to function.
Therefore, it is not surprising that flute and tuba performers receive the lowest overall grade compared to their other colleagues – maximum number of points for educational degree, performance of official duties and professional skills and minimum number of points according to the criterion “necessity of the musical instrument in the orchestra”.
An additional detail is that the leader of the orchestra is one of the musicians, assessed by the commission and among whom the selection was made. The court later found a conflict of interest in this.
All are good, but it is possible without some of them
On January 13, to the musicians an additional agreement to their employment contracts was presented, which reduced their working hours from 8 to 6 hours. The tuba and the flute performers signed, and on January 15 this year their employment contracts have been terminated. The reason is the reduction of the staff, as a result of a reduced budget for the maintenance of the orchestra.
The Sevlievo edition notes that as of the date of the cuts, the budget for the current year has not been adopted yet. This happened on January 28, 2020, i.e. at the time of the cuts because of a cut budget, the cut budget was not a fact. Actually, there was a new job list. According to the court documents, this list is dated January 2 this year and instead of 18 there are 14 musicians in it. There were no appointments in two of the places, so the cut-offs really only concern two musicians. The numbers of the job list were approved by the Mayor of Sevlievo and the names in the list were approved by the director of the House of Culture.
It is inadmissible for an arbitrator to judge himself
And another fact to which the court pays attention – the leader Drashkov does not deny that the assessment of which instruments to drop-out is his. However, he is part of the orchestra and one of the musicians assessed by the commission. For this the court is categorical: “the participation of one of the applicants, for keeping the employment contracts, in the assessment activity of the selection, puts him in a clear conflict of interests and violates the decisions taken. It is inadmissible for an arbitrator to assess his own qualities and qualifications.” The court also considers that Drashkov’s participation in the selection “distorts the assessment of the other members of the commission”, and accepts the lack of reasons for assessment as a lack of evidence to establish whether the assessments in the minutes are objective, i.e. the assessment is incorrect, and hence is the dismissal.
This decision was made in the first instance for the musician who plays the tuba. For the flute, the decision is different. The Sevlievo District Court, chaired by a judge from Gabrovo, considers that there should have been no selection of staff at all, as the flute was cut-off in order to perform the tasks assigned to the orchestra, i.e. maintaining a rich repertoire that could have happened without the instrument in question.
At second instance, however, the court confirmed that both had been unlawfully dismissed and reinstated them. There are currently deadlines for filing an appeal with the Supreme Court of Cassation. After the expiration of this term it will become clear whether the Municipality of Sevlievo will appeal the appellate decisions, ‘Sevlievo Online” writes.
