During a nationwide campaign carried out in late 2004, the Bulgarian General Labour Inspectorate identified 7,316 cases of labour law infringements, of which almost 70% concern health and safety in working conditions.
Towards the end of 2004, the Bulgarian General Labour Inspectorate (Glavna Inspekzia po truda, GIT) carried out a nationwide inspection of working conditions and employment contracts. The inspection covered 1,480 employers (2,138 work sites) and involved 84,007 employees (about 4% of the total number of salaried workers in the country).
The main sectors targeted were:
- retail trade (NACE G52) - 255 inspections;
- public administration and defence; compulsory social security (NACE L75) - 188 inspections;
- hotels and restaurants (NACE H55) - 155 inspections;
- other business activities (NACE K74) - 102 inspections;
- education (NACE M80) - 82 inspections.
The inspection yielded a total of 7,316 breaches of labour legislation, broken down into two categories:
- breaches of health and safety regulations (5,043 cases, 69% of the total);
- breaches of employment contracts regulations (2,241 cases, 31% of the total).
The Labour Inspectorate issued 7,080 warnings to correct the problems identified. Altogether, 197 penalties were imposed on employers, most of them (135) concerning health and safety in working conditions. As a consequence, a total of 24 workers were fired.
Breaches of health and safety regulations
In this category, most of the infringements concerned:
- Failure to follow instructions regarding health and safety (936 cases, 18.6% of the total in this category). In general, it was found that employers failed to adhere to the requirements and - where they were carried out - the process was more to cover the formalities than genuinely effective.
- Lack of risk evaluation (518 cases, 10.3% of the total in this category). This was particularly common in small and micro companies, as well as those being inspected for the first time. Here also, the inspectors found that only minimal evaluation had been followed in order to cover the requirements.
- Lack of committees/groups responsible for working conditions (319 cases, 6.3% of the total in this category). In addition to identifying companies where there was no committee presence at all, once again, there were cases of such committees existing in theory, but not carrying out any actual functions or meeting regularly to discuss working conditions. The law which regulates these arrangements (Safe and Healthy Working Conditions Act, art. 28 and 29.1) stipulates regular meetings at least once every three months. Lack of training of committee members was another issue.
- Lack of services provided by the labour medical agencies (289 violations, 5.5% of the total in this category). Overall, 20% of the employers inspected did not provide such services.
- Lack of individual protective equipment, or non-usage where it was available (216 cases, 4.3% of the total in this category).
These five types of violations represent 45% of the total in this category. The remaining proportion comprised a wide variety of different malpractices.
Breaches of employment contracts regulations
This category includes infringements with regard to:
- Conclusion of employment contracts (475 violations, 21.2% of the total in this category). Many labour contracts are concluded without the required documentation, most often without a preliminary medical report and employee certificate of qualification.
- Working time, breaks and holidays (414 cases, 18.5% of the total in this category). Usually, in private companies, there are no official regulations governing these aspects. In many cases, while the employees in reality work shifts, officially (in the documented schedule) they appear to be working a normal week, i.e. five days, eight hours per day. This inaccuracy surrounding working time makes it difficult to calculate actual working hours and the kind of hours worked. For example, night work, overtime, working weekends and public holidays can remain undocumented, and hence it is hard to evaluate fair remuneration.
- Payment. There are cases of non-paid compensation for poor/dangerous working conditions, night work, and work on public holidays.
- Social insurance contributions. Some employers failed to transfer the necessary contributions to the National Social Security Institute and National Health Insurance Fund.
- Sick leave. In towns and villages without medical service units, employees often simply count their sick leave as non-paid holidays because nobody is available to issue a sickness certificate for them.
These five types of infringements comprise about 50% of the total in this category. The remainder were more random in nature.
The inspectors involved in this campaign believe that most of the registered violations are due to insufficient awareness of legal regulations and, in some cases, to misunderstanding of the meaning of the relevant legal requirements.
Source
General Labour Inspectorate (Главна инспекция по труда, ГИТ)
Author: Rumiana Gladicheva