Working life in Bulgaria

Notes: Values for real GDP per capita are chain-linked volumes (based on 2010 data; €). The unemployment rate for men and women is the annual average as a percentage of the active population aged 15–74 years, and the youth unemployment rate is the annual average as a percentage of people aged 15–24 years. The employment rate for men and women is the annual average as a percentage of the active population aged 15–64 years, and the youth employment rate is the annual average as a percentage of people aged 15–24 years. GDP, gross domestic product.

Sources: Eurostat [sdg_08_10], for real GDP per capita and percentage change 2012–2022; [une_rt_a], for unemployment rate by sex and age; [lfsi_emp_a], for employment rate by sex and age.

Economic and labour market context

Between 2012 and 2022, Bulgaria experienced robust gross domestic product growth of 42.49%, well above the EU average of 15.29%. From 2012 to 2022, unemployment in Belgium decreased by 9 percentage points, and it remained below the EU average of 6.2% in 2022. Although declining, youth unemployment (unemployment among those up to 25 years of age) stood at 10.7% in 2022, and was still higher than the total unemployment rate of 4.3%. Employment rates increased in the 10 years considered, from 67% in 2012 to 73.6% in 2022. Employment of those aged 15–24 fell by 7.4 percentage points between 2012 and 2022.

The main challenges facing the Bulgarian economy and labour market between 2012 and 2022 included managing the pandemic and inflation and reducing inequalities. By mid-2021, the business climate was improving as a result of the government policy and measures implemented to limit the effects of COVID-19. However, in June–December 2021 the Bulgarian economy tackled a substantial increase in energy prices and another wave of COVID-19. The intensification of the war in Ukraine increased the likelihood of stagflation, as higher energy prices made production more expensive and uncompetitive while external markets shrank. For the second year in a row, in 2021 Bulgaria registered a decrease in the number of employed people and an increase in unemployment (Economic Research Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2022).

The Labour Code (Кодекс на труда) regulates labour relations between employees and employers, industrial relations, collective bargaining and the control of labour regulations compliance.

In 2022, amendments to the Labour Code (implemented through Law No. 217of 5 August 2022 amending and supplementing the Labour Code) aimed to promote the security and predictability of employment relationships and to improve the possibilities of reconciling work and family obligations, implementing Directive (EU) 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions in the EU and Directive (EU) 2019/1158 on work–life balance for parents and carers (KPMG Bulgaria, 2022).

Employee representation and collective bargaining, and the criteria for the national representation of social partners, are regulated by the Labour Code. The law on the settlement of collective labour disputes (CLDs) deals with the resolution of disputes between employees and employers on issues related to labour and social insurance and the standard of living. The current conditions for establishing the representation of employers and employees through organisations are set out in an ordinance (Decree of the Council of Ministers No. 152 of 11 July 2003).

The General Labour Inspectorate has overall control over labour legislation compliance in all economic sectors. The inspectorate is part of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. The functioning of the national system for labour inspection is determined by the Law on Labour Inspection (2009).

Industrial relations context

Bulgaria’s industrial relations system is decentralised and operates through various tripartite structures for national and sectoral social dialogue and collective bargaining bodies at sectoral, industry, company and territorial levels (councils for social cooperation in municipalities). National tripartite cooperation has taken place within the National Tripartite Cooperation Council (NTCC) since 1993 and the Economic and Social Council since 2001, and also takes place through various tripartite governing and supervisory bodies within the employment and social security administration. Industrial tripartite cooperation is also organised through (sub)industrial councils under the umbrella of the respective ministries (in about 50 councils). Although trade union density and the impact of collective bargaining have decreased since the 1990s, collective bargaining coverage is still substantial in several industries and companies (Kirov, 2019). A national tripartite agreement was signed in June 2020, only the fourth of its kind in the 30 years of transition. It covers measures in five areas: the business environment and the economy; energy; the European Green Deal; demography, education, the labour market and labour migration; and social protection policies (Dimitrov, 2021).

Since 2011, social dialogue and industrial relations in Bulgaria have been functioning in a complex political and economic climate, and have continued despite the government’s disregard of tripartism in making decisions of national importance. For example, there have been tensions between employers, trade unions and public bodies about the functioning of the NTCC in relation to labour-related legislative changes, pension reform, minimum statutory wage increases and Bulgaria’s recovery and resilience plan.

In 2020–2021, social partners were active in supporting measures and social dialogue regarding COVID-19 and the refugee crisis because of the war in Ukraine.

To tackle the multiple challenges posed by the pandemic (Dimitrov, 2021), the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (CITUB) and the three employer organisations –the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIBG), the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) and the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA) – initiated the signing of social partner bipartite memoranda for the prevention of COVID-19, preservation of jobs and adaptation of the skills of the workforce to the digitalising world of work. The industries/sectors involved are the chemical industry, mining, metallurgy, the mechanical engineering and electrical industry, energy, water supply and sewerage, construction, textiles and clothing, the food industry, brewing, agriculture and culture.

In 2020–2021, the social partners participated actively in discussions with the government on the design of COVID-19-related economic and social measures and their sustainability, and regarding opinions on legislative amendments and draft bills. There was tension between employer and worker organisations during the discussions on the Labour Code amendment concerning time averaging, on-call and on-duty arrangements and overtime, and the minimum statutory wage increase and socioeconomic measures because of inflation. The final version of the national recovery and Resilience plan is also a subject of tensions between social partners and the government. According to CITUB (Atanasov, 2023), the plan contains substantial amendments (for example a 40% reduction in energy emissions by 2026) that were not subject to discussion with the social partners or wider public consultation.

Trade unions, employer organisations and public institutions play a key role in the governance of the employment relationship, working conditions and industrial relations structures. They are interlocking parts in a multilevel system of governance that includes European, national, sectoral, regional (provincial or local) and company levels. This section looks at the key players and institutions and their role in Bulgaria.

Public authorities involved in regulating working life

The state plays a general role of regulating, controlling and facilitating industrial relations through its institutions. The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy is the main national authority dealing with labour regulations and working conditions. It carries out consultations and cooperates with representative organisations of workers and employers at national level in the development and implementation of policies on the labour market, the protection of the national labour market and training of the workforce.

There are no specialised labour courts in Bulgaria. All individual labour conflicts are dealt with by the general courts. In 2016, as a result of a change to the Labour Code (Article 45 ‘Representation in court’), trade unions and their branches are entitled, at the request of employees, to represent them in court.

As a mediation and arbitration body, the National Institute for Conciliation and Arbitration (NICA) of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy functions on a tripartite basis. The main aim of NICA is to facilitate the settlement of CLDs through mediation and arbitration as an alternative, extrajudicial means of dispute settlement for collective labour conflicts.

The General Labour Inspectorate (a government agency) monitors the compliance of the labour legislation on quality of work and on health and safety at work.

The national Working Conditions Fund was created under the Law on Health and Safety at Work, providing finance for projects improving working conditions with to national-, branch- and sector-level importance.

Representativeness

The general rules of representativeness are described in Articles 34 and 35 of the Labour Code. The procedure for settlement of the representative social partners is described in Article 36 of the Labour Code. The census of social partners’ membership is held every four years but data are not publicly available.

Trade unions must prove that they meet the following criteria to be accepted as nationally representative (Labour Code, Article 34).

• They must have at least 50,000 members (up from 75,000 in 2012).
• Territorial representation: they must have local branches in more than a quarter of the municipalities in the country.
• They must have a national governing body.
• Length of experience: they must have the status of a legal entity, obtained by registration as a non-profit association at least three years before the census.

The employer organisations need to prove the following (Labour Code, Article 35).

• They must have at least 1,500 member companies with no fewer than 50,000 employees in total, or 100,000 employees within all members of the employer organisation, working with employment contracts.
• They represent employers in more than a quarter of the NACE code-defined economic activities with no fewer than 5% of employees in each economic activity, or a minimum of 10 employers in each activity.
• Territorial representation: they represent employers in more than a quarter of Bulgaria’s municipalities.
• Length of experience: they have the status of a legal entity, obtained by registration as a non-profit association at least three years before the census.

Trade unions

About trade union representation

The Labour Code (Articles 4 and 5) provides that employees/employers have the right, without prior authorisation, to freely form trade unions/organisations, voluntarily join or leave them, considering their statutes only. No exclusion of employees or sectors is set out in the Labour Code. Civil servants can also form and be members of trade unions (in accordance with the Law for Civil Servants). Freedom of association is set out in the Constitution Act (Article 49).

Some limitations are set out by other legislative documents, such as the Law for the Ministry of the Interior. The employees of the security system have the right to join trade unions for the Ministry of the Interior only (none of the nationally representative social partners).

By 2003, union membership was steadily decreasing. Union density declined between 2008 and 2013, but relatively less than membership rate. This was due to overall employment decreasing by more than 15% in 2008–2012 and the shrinkage of the manufacturing, services and public administration sectors. Since 2004, the main reasons for decline have been the privatisation of state companies and the fact that more than 90% of companies are small and medium-sized enterprises, which are challenging for unions to organise within. New forms of employment, such as self-employment, and an increasing number of workers in the grey economy, have also played a role. According to Dimitrov (2021), the trade union density was still showing a trend of decline in 2020, although at a slower pace. Data from official censuses show that trade union density was 16.9% in 2008, 16.4% in 2012 and 15.4% in 2016.

In general, trade union density is higher in the public sector (education and healthcare) and in several manufacturing industries (metal, chemicals and mining), but it is low in the rest of manufacturing, services and construction (Kirov, 2019).

Trade union membership and density, 2010–2020

Notes: * Proportion of employees who are members of a trade union among all employees. ** Union density figures represent union density rate, which is net union membership as a proportion of wage and salary earners in employment, and membership figures represent net union membership. *** With regard to trade union density, data for 2010 and 2012 are based on the national representative survey Work Climate Index, and data for 2013 and 2014 are based on the national representative survey Syndibarometer (both conducted by the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research of CITUB). Data for 2016–2020 are based on the official censuses and are underestimated, as they are calculated based on the trade union membership of the representative trade unions only. **** Trade (labour) union membership of employees is based on (household) labour force surveys or any other surveys (for example, working conditions surveys, social attitudes surveys) asking the respondent about their union membership in their main job. Trade (labour) union membership of employees derived for the total (labour) union membership and adjusted, if necessary, for trade (labour) union members outside the active, dependent and employed labour force (i.e. retired workers, self-employed workers, students, unemployed people). n.a., not available; OECD/AIAS ICTWSS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts.

Sources: Visser, 2019; Dimitrov, 2021.

Main trade union confederations and federations

The most important nationally representative trade union confederations in Bulgaria are CITUB and the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa (CL Podkrepa).

CITUB is the largest trade union in Bulgaria. It was established in 1990, on the basis of the only trade union during the communist period (Balgarski Profesionalni Sauzi). CL Podkrepa was formed on 8 February 1989. During its early years (up to 1991), CL Podkrepa combined trade union and political activities. However, CL Podkrepa rapidly became the second largest trade union confederation in Bulgaria, covering all economic sectors and regions. CITUB held its ninth congress in May 2022, and incumbent President Plamen Dimitrov was re-elected for a new five-year mandate. In its 11th congress (8–9 February 2023), CL Podkrepa celebrated its 34th anniversary, demanding a decisive income increase in all economic sectors and an accelerated increase in the minimum wage.

Both national representative trade unions are running nationwide information campaigns, such as ‘Grey Kills’ (CITUB, 2019), aiming to reduce the share of the informal economy in Bulgaria and prioritising activities in construction, agriculture, manufacturing and automotive industry. In 2019, CL Podkrepa, in cooperation with the Bulgarian Medical Association, the Bulgarian Association for Professional Healthcare and the Trade Union Federation of the Ministry of the Interior, initiated a campaign for decent working conditions and increased pay for night work.

In 2018, CITUB and CL Podkrepa held joint protest actions aiming to protect the Bulgarian electric power industry, requesting a new state power strategy for 2030–2050 to compensate for losses as a result of the carbon emissions of power plant Maritsa Iztok 2. On 12 January 2023, both confederations organised a protest called ‘Let’s protect the energy security of the country’, which related to the commitment made in the national recovery and resilience plan to reduce carbon emissions from the power sector by 40% by the end of 2025 compared with 2019 levels. During discussions on the national budget, the National Health Insurance Fund budget and the social security budget for 2023, the trade unions demanded a 10–15% increase in the minimum statutory wage.

Main trade union confederations and federations

Note: These are nationally representative trade union confederations and federations.
Sources: Adapted from Dimitrov (2021), quoting data from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy from official censuses conducted in 2012, 2016 and 2020.

Employer organisations

About employer representation

All employers have the right to join employer organisations (Labour Code, Article 5). One company can be a member of more than one employer organisation. This multiple membership makes it difficult to evaluate the real density and membership rate.

Through amendments of the Labour Code in 2016, the parliament adopted lower criteria (50,000 members, as it was between 1992 and 2012, instead of 75,000 members) for the national representativeness of the social partners.

According to the publicly available census data from 2012, employer organisations cover approximately 14% of the companies in Bulgaria. After the 2016 census, this is calculated at 15.5% according to Dimitrov (2018), with an increase to 17.6% in 2020 (Dimitrov, 2021).

As the table below shows, the density in terms of establishments increased between the 2016 census and the 2020 census, while density in terms of employees decreased. This may mean that more, but smaller, establishments choose to become members of the employer organisations.

Employer organisation membership and density, 2012–2020

Notes: * Percentage of employees working in an establishment who are members of any employer organisation that is involved in collective bargaining. OECD/AIAS ICTWSS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts.
Sources: Adapted from Dimitrov (2017, 2021), quoting census data from 2016 and 2020 from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy; own calculations based on NSI statistics on the number of the enterprises in 2019 and the number of employees in 2020 (first nine months) and data from National representative survey “Work-climate-index” (ISTUR of CITUB).

Main employer organisations

According to the latest census, in 2020, there are five nationally representative employer organisations: the BIA, the CEIBG, BICA, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Union for Private Economic Enterprise (UPEE). The Bulgarian Employers’ Association of Innovative Technologies was not deemed representative (Council of Ministers2021).

The sectoral employer organisations are part of collective bargaining through the branch councils for cooperation. However, not all the branches and economic activities have collective agreements in place.

The Association of the Organizations of Bulgarian Employers (AOBE), registered in 1995, is an alliance of the employer organisations that were nationally representative prior to 2017 (the BIA, BICA, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the CEIBG). The AOBE is a collective member of the International Organisation of Employers and an active participant in the work of Employers Group 1 of the European Economic and Social Committee. Since 1 January 2018, AOBE has been an observer member of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. For 2023, the main priorities of AOBE are described in 44 measures in six key areas for the Bulgarian economy, including the business environment and the economy, energy and the green transition, education and the labour market, social policy, European policies and investments (AOBE, 2023).

Bozhidar Danev was Chairman and later Executive Chairman of the BIA for 25 years, until his death in 2018. In 2017, he was elected as Vice President of Business Europe. On 5 December 2018, Radosvet Radev was elected Chairman of the BIA Board. On 1 September 2021, Dobri Mitrev was elected Chairman of the BIA Board, replacing Radosvet Radev following his death.

UPEE is a non-governmental employer organisation of microenterprises and small and medium-sized companies, founded in 1989 by the first entrepreneurs in Bulgaria to promote economic initiatives and representation of the collective interests of employers in the labour market and industrial relations. UPEE is a member of SME United and the International Organisation of Employers.

The employer organisations have been very active in public discussions about labour legislation changes, for instance on raising the minimum wage, pension reform and social security issues. They often in opposition to the trade unions.

In 2018, the employer organisations boycotted the national negotiations for the new minimum insurance thresholds. The representatives of employer organisations continue to put pressure on the government for the facilitation of access of non-EU skilled labour to the Bulgarian labour market. In 2021, the employer organisations opposed the minimum wage set by the government.

Main employer organisations and confederations

Source: Adapted from Dimitrov (2021), quoting data from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy from official censuses of employer organisations carried out in 2016 and 2020.

Tripartite and bipartite bodies and concentration

The main tripartite body at national level is the NTCC. It has Council of Ministers commissions (created in 1993) dealing with labour-related issues, social security and quality of life. Another tripartite body is the Economic and Social Council (established in 2001). Under the aegis of the ministries, in accordance with the Labour Code, there are established branch councils for tripartite cooperation dealing with labour-related issues, social security and living standards in the respective economic branches. The nationally representative social partners participate in management bodies of the state institutions in charge of labour and social security issues.

The bipartite bodies are organised through branch/sectoral councils for social cooperation that are engaged in social dialogue on various labour- and social security-related issues between employers and trade union representatives. According to CITUB, bipartite social dialogue takes place in 12 councils for social cooperation. There is no comprehensive database for all bipartite bodies and their activity. At company level, social dialogue on health and safety at work is conducted by the working conditions committees/groups.

The mechanism for information and consultation is set out in the Labour Code (Article 7a). The number of employee representatives in the company’s general assembly depends on the size of the company. Collective bargaining is regulated by the Labour Code (Chapter 4).

The social pact for economic and social development of Bulgaria up to 2009 was signed by the government and the representative social partners. An agreement on 59 anti-crisis measures was drawn up by the NTCC in 2010. Two more national agreements were signed in 2010: one for home-based workers (Bulgaria’s ratification of the International Labour Organization’s Home Work Convention of 1996) and one for teleworking (implementing the European social partners’ Framework Agreement on Telework of 16 July 2002).

According to Dimitrov (2021), the tripartite social dialogue gained momentum in 2020 as a result of important pending amendments of laws. The most important issues discussed by the NTCC were employment measures and compensation schemes, income protection and financial support for businesses in times of crisis, and the state budget for 2021. After nearly a year of negotiations, a national tripartite agreement was signed in June 2020 covering measures in five areas: the business environment and the economy; energy; the European Green Deal; demography, education, the labour market and labour migration; and social protection policies. In 2021, the NTCC also discussed the decree of the council of ministers for an increase in the poverty line.

Main tripartite and bipartite bodies

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

Workplace-level employee representation

There is no universal form of workplace representation in Bulgaria. The Labour Code allows for the election of employees as representatives at company level for information and consultation (Directive 2002/14/EC) and as participants in company general assemblies, but this is rarely done in Bulgaria. In most cases, employees transfer the representation function to the trade unions. Two other forms of workplace representation are possible: employee representatives for the protection of employees’ economic and social interests, and health and safety committees/groups.

The employee representatives can be elected in all companies with at least 50 employees (Labour Code, Article 7c) and can vote in the company’s general assembly in information and consultation procedures. The number of representatives (between three and nine) depends on the size of the establishment.

According to Dimitrov (2018), employee representatives on information and consultation have been elected in only 20% of the enterprises covered by the law. Official national data are not available.

A law relating to the election of worker/employee representatives in the European works councils of multinational companies, supervision/management bodies of European companies and European cooperative societies has been in force since 2006. According to Dimitrov (2021), by 2017 there were more than 30 multinational company subsidiaries with elected representatives in the councils.

Regulation, composition and competences of the representative bodies

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

The central concern of employment relations is collective governance regarding work and employment. This section looks at collective bargaining in Bulgaria.

Bargaining system

According to the Labour Code (Article 51), collective labour agreements (CLAs) in Bulgaria are concluded at enterprise, branch or sector, and municipal levels. At the first two levels, only one CLA can be concluded. Usually, the branch or sectoral agreements set out the general and minimum elements of quality of work, which in most cases must not be higher than those set out in labour legislation.. The social partners involved in the company-level CLA can negotiate more favourable clauses for better working conditions. At municipality level, the collective agreements are concluded for activities that are financed from the municipality budgets, such as education, health and social services (municipality-level CLA).

There is no wage bargaining coordination. Decentralisation of wage bargaining has been a typical trend for Bulgaria since 1989, and this was reinforced during the 2007–2008 financial crisis’.

CLAs are valid for social partners that have signed the agreement, but also for non-trade union members, which can join the collective agreement under certain conditions, in accordance with the Labour Code.

NICA maintains an integrated database for CLAs and CLDs. It serves as a reference and enables the provision of information on collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and collective labour disputes. The national statistics for 2010–2021 provided by NICA also cover the public sector, education and health. For 2010–2014, almost half of the CLAs at company level were in education. The other sectors that each had more than 6% of the CLAs are health, manufacturing and state administration. According to NICA, in 2021 over 80% of concluded CBAs and their annexes were in the services sector, over 15% in the industrial sector and 4% in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector. For 2010–2021, 14.1% of CBAs and annexes were in the private sector, while 85.9% were in the public sector.

The 2016 NICA report on CLAs shows that, in 2016, approximately 290,000 employees were covered by CLAs, of whom 38,701 were working in state administration, 88,000 were employed in industry and 155,000 were employed in services (62.6% of all CLAs). By the end of 2021, compared with the baseline year of 2011, there was an increase of more than 10 percentage points in the number of employees covered by CLAs in force at company level. There was a considerable increase of 245.1 percentage points from 2017 to 2018 for government employees as a result of an agreement for employees in the Ministry of the Interior (NICA, 2021a).

Under the rules for the provision and exchange of information between NICA and the Executive Agency of the General Labour Inspectorate, NICA has access to the Register of Collective Labour Agreements of the General Labour Inspectorate.

Wage bargaining coverage

European-level statistics point to collective wage bargaining coverage of between 17% (2019) and 34% (2010) within private sector establishments and suggest a fall in coverage since 2010.

Collective wage bargaining coverage of employees

Notes: * Private sector companies with >10 employees (NACE B-S); multiple answers possible. ** Companies with >10 employees (NACE B-S, excluding O); single answer for each local unit; more than 50% of employees covered by such an agreement; percentage of employees working in local units where more than 50% of the employees are covered under a collective pay agreement out of the total number of employees in the scope of the survey.
Sources: Online dataset codes: [earn_ses10_01], [earn_ses14_01], [earn_ses18_01].

Pay higher than the minimum wage has been agreed in 29% of the establishment-level CLAs, covering 29% of employees. Out of a total of 1,515 company-level CBAs in force on 31 December 2021, 508 – or 33.5% (covering 102,895 employees, or 29.2% of all employees in Bulgaria) – involve the negotiation of an enterprise minimum wage higher than the current minimum statutory wage (BGN 650). The main observation is that, since 2017, the number of CLAs has been increasing, but the number of covered employees has been decreasing.

Source: NICA, 2021a.

Bargaining levels

The main issues in bargaining, covered by all levels of CLAs, are related to employment, pay and working conditions.

Industry-level (sector-level) CLAs include general sector-specific issues such as details of bonuses for productivity, quality of work, hazardous working conditions, working time, health and safety at work, redundancy procedures, protection against discrimination, work–life balance and information and consultation issues.

Municipal-level CLAs concern activities such as those in education, healthcare and culture that are financed by the municipality budgets. Municipal CLAs cannot provide for less favourable employment and working conditions than the sectoral CLAs.

Company-level collective agreements are more detailed and cover qualification requirements, specific working time and leave, pay rates, health and safety, social insurance, trade union activities, dispute procedures and social benefits.

There is no collective bargaining at national level, although social dialogue at national level is represented in the NTCC, discussing all labour-related legislative changes and policies. Bulgaria has a minimum wage, which is set by the government after consultation with employers and unions in the NTCC.

The total number of effective company CLAs has been subject to a steady decline since 2012, from 2,084 in the baseline year of 2011 to 1,820 in 2017 (decrease of approx. 13%) and 1,682 in 2019 (decrease of approx. 23%). During the past three years, the number of effective CLAs at company level has decreased. At municipal and sectoral/branch levels, the number has remained almost the same.

Effective CLAs by bargaining level at year end, 2011–2022

Source: NICA, 2022.

Levels of collective bargaining, 2022

Notes: The statutory minimum wage is set out in legislation. CLAs can set the minimum wage at sector/company level, but not lower than the statutory minimum wage for the country. Working time is also set in accordance with legislation. Company-level CLAs can sometimes set out working times and shifts within legislative provisions.
Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

Articulation

There is no comparative information or specialised legislation prescribing how the levels are linked to each other. One of the possible practices could be that, if a company is within a sector with a CLA, the company agreement will use most or all of the provisions agreed for the sector, and will try to upgrade at least some of them. However, there are companies with very detailed and comprehensive CLAs. In 2017, in the sectors K, L, N, O and S (in 2014, the sectors J, K, L, M, N, O and S. See NACE codes in the 'Pay' section) there were no sectoral CLAs, but there were company-level CLAs (according to NICA).

Timing of bargaining rounds

The Labour Code prescribes the maximum duration of collective agreements as two years, and this duration is usually adopted. Therefore, there is no specific month or time of year when the negotiations generally begin. Negotiations are usually initiated three months before the expiry of the validity of the previous collective agreement. This applies to the sectoral/branch and company collective agreements on the condition that company contracts comply with the existing minimum levels at sectoral/branch level.

Coordination

The sectoral CLAs establish the minimum wage for the sector (with individual variations depending on level of education, nature of work and working time). The employer may adopt or increase it (or decrease it in cases of derogation), taking into account the company’s economic situation, but wages may not be less than the minimum statutory pay.

Vertical CLA coordination (Chapter 4, Labour Code 1986) has been replaced by the adoption of the traditional type of collective bargaining, with negotiations between equal partners or their representatives. The most important type of CLA in Bulgaria is at company level, followed by branch/sectoral CLAs.

Extension mechanisms

According to the Labour Code (Article 54b:4):

when the collective agreement at sectoral or branch level is concluded between all the representative organisations of workers and employers in the sector or industry, at their joint request the Minister of Labour and Social Policy may extend the application of the contract or of its individual clauses in all enterprises of the sector or industry.

The role of sectoral collective agreements has become more significant since 2010–2011, when the clause extending them to all companies in the respective sector came into force. The Minister for Labour and Social Policy, after consulting the social partners, extended the validity of collective agreements in water supply (February 2010) and sewerage (September 2012), brewing (May 2010, November 2011, September 2013, May 2022), cellulose paper (August 2010, July 2012), wood processing and furniture (2010), mining (May 2011), metallurgy (2011) and exploration, extraction and processing of mineral resources (May 2011, June 2018). The Register of Collective Labour Agreements of the General Labour Inspectorate includes information about the extended, ongoing and expired CLAs. The decisions to extend sectoral CLAs are also available in this register. The extension mechanism has been in use since 2012–2014.. For example, the 2011–2018 industry (branch) collective agreement for the industry ‘Exploration, production and processing of mineral resources’ has been extended for all companies operating in NACE sectors B5, B6, B7, B8, B9, C19.2, C20.51, C23.52, C23.62, C23.7, F42, F43.13, H49.41 and M72.

The Labour Code provisions on collective bargaining were changed in 2020 to include a simplified sector/branch CLA extension procedure (Article 51b, paragraph 4) and to establish fair mechanisms for joining a CLA (Article 57, paragraph 2).

Derogation mechanisms

If there are financial difficulties in companies (including in subsidiaries of multinational companies), the sectoral/branch or company CLAs are able to set wages lower than those negotiated in collective agreements for a limited period, but they must not be less than the national monthly minimum statutory wage. For instance, the 2015 annex of the metal industry CLA provides for a lower wage where there are reduced volumes of work or shrunken market shares.

Expiry of collective agreements

A collective agreement should be concluded for a period of at least one year. If not specified, it could last up to two years. The parties may agree a shorter duration for some of its clauses (Labour Code, Article 54:2). Negotiations for a new collective agreement should commence not later than three months before the expiry of the current collective agreement.

Peace clauses

Peace clauses exist in Bulgarian CLAs. From 2017 to 2021, the number of CLAs with peace clauses has increased.

CLA’s with peace clause for the period 2017–2021

Source: NICA, 2021a.

Since 2019, NICA has observed peace clauses in active CLAs, as shown in the table below. Note that one CLA could include more than one peace clause.

Source: NICA, 2021a.

Other aspects of working life addressed in collective agreements

In almost all sectoral/branch and company collective agreements there are clauses concerning training, but rarely lifelong learning. As part of the sectoral CLA, the social partners in the metal industry have agreed to set up regional training centres. In the textile sector, branch funds have been set aside for workers to get qualifications. In construction, employers have agreed to set up a special training fund. Usually, CLAs include clauses covering almost the entire range of employment aspects: pay and benefits, working time and leave, and health and safety.

Almost all collective agreements contain a general provision for equality and non-discrimination at work.

Legal aspects

The Law for Collective Labour Dispute Resolution is the legal framework that sets out the ‘right to strike.’ The main type of industrial action is the ‘active strike’ (ефективна стачка), during which employees do not work. Such action may be organised when conciliation, arbitration or negotiations have had no success. During the strike, employees need to be present at the employer’s site within their regular working time. Another form is the ‘symbolic strike’ (символична стачка), which involves working as usual while wearing or placing appropriate signs, protest posters, ribbons, badges or other appropriate symbols. This kind of strike can also be used by healthcare workers or the police; the law forbids active strikes within such sectors.

Developments in industrial action, 2010–2021

No official national data sources on industrial action are available for Bulgaria.

NICA maintains its own register of CLDs, which is not representative. A total of 152 CLDs were identified for 2010–2021, of which 148 were in enterprises and 4 were at municipal level. A total of 401,110 people were employed in enterprises with CLDs at the time of a dispute. In 2010–2021, the largest proportion of issues that were the subject of a CLD were related to delayed payment of wages (59) and pay increases (58), followed by issues related to restructuring and/or employment (48) and occupational health and safety (40).

The number of CLDs registered by NICA was 15 in 2012 and 13 in 2017, compared with 7 in 2021. Within the CLDs in the country in 2015, nine effective strikes had been organised. There were five effective strikes in 2017 and three in 2021 (NICA, 2021, p. 20). In 40% of the cases, the effective strikes were due to non-fulfilment of the collective agreement. In 55%, the reason was failure to reach an agreement, and refusal to negotiate was the cause in 5% of the effective strikes.

Registered CLDs, 2012–2021

Sources: NICA, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021b.

Dispute resolution mechanisms

Collective dispute resolution mechanisms

In accordance with the Law for Collective Labour Dispute Resolution, CLDs are settled through direct negotiations between workers and employers or between their representatives in a procedure freely determined by the negotiating parties. Strikes are forbidden (Article 16) in the Ministry of Defence; the Ministry of the Interior; judicial, prosecutorial and investigative bodies; the state intelligence agency; and the national security service.

When no agreement is reached or one of the parties refuses to negotiate, each may seek assistance for the settlement of the dispute by mediation and/or voluntary arbitration of trade unions and employer organisations and/or NICA.

Individual dispute resolution mechanisms

According to the Labour Code (Article 357), labour disputes are between employees and employers on the occurrence, existence, implementation and termination of employment, and regarding the implementation of collective agreements and the length of working experience. Such disputes could be regarding the law (claims for rights on labour) on legislation, collective agreements or individual agreement rights and obligations. These individual disputes are dealt with by the courts. As there are no labour courts in Bulgaria, the civil courts are competent for such cases, and administrative courts are competent in some of these cases. Trade unions and their branches are able (Labour Code, change from 2016) to represent the employees, upon their request, in court.

There are also non-legal disputes of interest. These are related to the establishment of envisaged rights and obligations. This kind of individual dispute could be resolved between the employer and the employee. If agreement cannot be reached, dispute resolution must be provided by the court.

Use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms

The alternative dispute resolution mechanism is carried out by NICA. As a rule, in recent years, the parties have settled disputes between themselves with the help of their own supreme structures, without using external assistance from NICA.

For 2010–2021, NICA registered a total of 152 CLDs in 97 enterprises and 3 municipalities. NICA initiated seven arbitration proceedings under Article 14(3) of the Law for Collective Labour Dispute Resolution (establishing minimum activities during an effective strike). There were most CLDs in 2010–2011: 85% of all CLDs within the observed period.

In 2015, there was one conciliation procedure and one arbitration procedure registered by NICA. The conciliation procedure was terminated as a result of a failure to achieve an agreement between the parties in dispute. The arbitration procedure was because of unattainable agreement with the employer, and it resulted in the avoidance of the organisation of an effective strike. In 2015, NICA organised one mediation procedure of a CLD, which was unresolved due to disagreement between the parties of the dispute. There are no data for 2016. No requests for conciliation and arbitration were made to NICA in 2017.

It is reported that one of the main reasons for the low arbitration activity is the refusal of one of the parties to enter into negotiations. According to NICA management, 95% of CLDs are settled using direct negotiations between the disputing parties, including and with the help or support of trade unions and employer organisations and/or government bodies, institutions and organisations directly or indirectly involved. It is possible to use extrajudicial methods for settling CLDs. With the assistance of NICA, in 2012 there was one procedure to determine the minimum services that should be maintained in the event of a strike (under Article 14(3) of the Law for the Settlement of CLDs). Only one mediation procedure was requested in 2018; it concerned a CLD at the municipal public transport service company.

Use of dispute resolution mechanisms, 2010–2021

Source: NICA (2021b).

‘Individual employment relations’ refers to the relationship between the individual worker and their employer. This relationship is shaped by legal regulation and by the outcomes of social partner negotiations over terms and conditions. This section looks at the start and termination of the employment relationship and entitlements and obligations in Bulgaria.

Start and termination of the employment relationship

Requirements regarding an employment contract

The start of the employment relationship should be marked by the signature of a written employment contract (Labour Code, Article 61).

The minimum working age is 18 years. For those aged 16 or 17 years, an employment contract must be authorised by the General Labour Inspectorate. A work permit for a minor (below 18 years of age) must be applied for from the General Labour Inspectorate. The formal requirements (documents and certificates) for entering into an employment relationship are listed in Regulation No. 4 (SG No. 44 of 25 May 1993, amended and supplemented SG 99 of 12 December 2017) and relate to the documents required to conclude an employment contract.

The employment contract has to be issued before the start of the employment relationship. Within three days of the conclusion or modification of the employment contract and within seven days of its termination, the employer or authorised person is obliged to notify the relevant territorial directorate of the National Revenue Agency. Upon conclusion of the employment contract, the employer informs the employee about the specific obligations arising from their work site or work performed.

Short-term employment contracts for short-term seasonal agricultural work were introduced into the Labour Code in July 2015 (Article 114a:1), especially for seasonal agricultural work on a day-to-day basis as agreed between the worker and the registered farmer, for work that does not qualify as work experience.

Dismissal and termination procedures

The Labour Code allows for the termination of the employment contract by mutual agreement without notice and without compensation (Labour Code, Article 325:1, item 1), termination initiated by the employee with notice (Article 326:2, item 1), termination initiated by the employer during the probationary period (Article 71:1), termination initiated by the employer with agreed compensation (Article 331) and job cuts. The reasons for terminating the labour relationship could be expiry of the agreed period or completion of the work specified in the contract (Labour Code, Article 325:4). An employment contract could also be terminated if a job is to be reassigned to someone who has the right to take it, such as someone returning from parental leave, or if an employee is unable to perform assigned work because of illness resulting in permanent disability, or because of medical contraindications based on the conclusion of an expert medical committee. However, termination is not allowed based on this last criterion if the employer has other work suited to the health of the employee and the employee is willing to take it.

Some categories of employees are protected from dismissal (Labour Code, Article 333), such as mothers of children under three years of age, reassigned employees, employees suffering from a disease specified by the Minister for Health, employees who have begun a period of permitted leave, employees who are elected employee representatives, employees who are elected to represent workers on health and safety at work, and employees who are members of the special negotiating body of a European works council or a representative body in the European commercial or cooperative sector while performing its functions.

Entitlements and obligations

Parental, maternity and paternity leave

The calculation of maternity leave compensation changed on 1 January 2015 with the introduction of the Law on the Budget of the State Social Security for 2015. The compensation for maternity leave is calculated on the basis of 90% of the average income for the 24 calendar months before the start of maternity leave (18 months prior to 1 January 2015). People eligible for these contributions should have a 12-month total insurance record for this social security risk.

The National Social Security Institute (NSSI) publishes quarterly and annual data on short-term cash benefits, including maternity and paternity/parental leave. Data on leave for fathers have been collected since 2008. The uptake is only published as a ratio between the number of benefits (per person per month) for men and women. The latest data (2019) show a decline in paternity benefits after a slight increase in 2015 and 2016. This may be because both the maternity and the paternity leave benefits for raising a child are BGN 380 per month, and men still have generally higher wages than women, which makes it more logical for the woman to raise the child.

Number of childcare benefits by sex, 2012–2021

Note: * The data refer to the number of people with paid benefits from the National Social Security Institute for parenting a child up to two years of age.

Source: NSSI, 2021a.

Statutory leave arrangements

Sick leave

According to Articles 40:5 and 41 of the Social Security Code, the general principle for people insured for general illness and maternity is that the daily cash benefit for temporary disability due to sickness is calculated at 80% of the average gross salary. For temporary disability due to accident or occupational disease, it is calculated at 90% of the average gross salary or the average daily insurance income on which social security contributions have been paid or are payable.

For the first three days of the temporary disability, the insurer (employer) pays the insured person 70% of the average daily gross remuneration for the month in which temporary disability occurred, but not less than 70% of the average daily wage agreed.

Where general illness, occupational disease or an accident at work arises 30 calendar days after the termination of an employment contract, or social security contributions, compensation can be paid for temporary disability, but for no longer than 30 calendar days (Social Security Code, Article 42(3)).

Retirement age

The conditions for retirement on the basis of social security contributions and age are regulated in the Social Security Code (Article 68(1) and (2); in force since 2000). The retirement age is 60 years and 10 months for women and 63 years and 10 months for men, with a pensionable service of 35 years and 2 months for women and 38 years and 2 months for men.

As of 31 December 2016, the retirement age will increase from the first day of each calendar year as follows.

• Until 31 December 2029, the retirement age of women will increase by two months each calendar year; from 1 January 2030, it will increase by three months for each calendar year, up to the age of 65.
• Until 31 December 2017, the retirement age of men will increase by two months each calendar year; from 1 January 2018, it will increase by one month for each calendar year, up to the age of 65.

From 31 December 2016, the length of pensionable service under Article 68 of Social Security Code(provided above) increases from the first day of each calendar year by two months, up to a pensionable service length of 37 years for women and 40 years for men. After 31 December 2037, the retirement age shall be linked to the increase of the average life expectancy.

For people not entitled to a pension under the above provisions, before 31 December 2016 they were entitled to a pension at the age of 65 years and 10 months, for women and men, if they had at least 15 years of actual pensionable service. As of 31 December 2016, the age will increase from the first day of each calendar year by two months, up to the age of 67. In 2021, the weight of a year of contributory service in the pension formula increased from 1.169% to 1.35%. Since 1 July 2019, this percentage has been applied (for each year of service) when calculating the amount of pension for length of service and age and other employment pensions granted with a starting date after 31 December 2018 (Social Security Code, Article 70).

For workers, pay is a reward for their work and their main source of income; for employers, it is a cost of production and a focus of bargaining and legislation. This section looks at minimum wage setting in Bulgaria and guides the reader to further material on collective wage bargaining.

The guaranteed wage of every employee under an employment contract is at least 60% of the gross wage, but not less than the minimum statutory wage. The difference up to the full amount of the wage remains due with interest (Labour Code, Article 245). According to preliminary data of the NSI (2022a), the number of people employed under employment and service relationships at the end of September 2022 was expected to decrease by 1.4%, to 2.28 million, compared with the number at the end of June 2022. Average annual wages continued to increase in 2021. In the third quarter of 2022, the average gross monthly wage increased by 0.8% compared with the second quarter of 2022 (€891 or BGN 1,743). According to a macroeconomic forecast, the minimum wage will continue to rise, albeit at a slower pace, until 2024. Wage growth in the public sector is faster than in the private sector because of government subsidies and compensatory measures (in 2021, the average gross wage in the public sector was €957 compared with €824 in the private sector). The monthly minimum statutory wage is set by administrative decision of the government, after consultations with social partners within the NTCC. The development and dynamics of the minimum wage largely depend on the government’s income policy.

Average monthly wages* and salaries per worker among employees with an employment contract, by economic activity and sex, 2018 and 2021 (€)

Notes: * There is no publicly available periodic official statistics on median wage, as the latest statistics calculated by the NSI are for 2018. ** Preliminary data. The data cover all enterprises (local units) from all economic activities irrespective of their type of ownership and source of financing. Data up to 30 November 2022. Amounts in BGN were converted to euro using an exchange rate of 1.95583.

Source: NSI, 2022b.

Minimum wages

In Bulgaria, the government sets the monthly minimum statutory wage following consultations with the NTCC. The increase in 2015–2022 was accompanied by active debate between the social partners and the government. In general, the change in the minimum statutory wage is introduced in the NTCC during the presentation of the state budget, but the government can set the minimum wage administratively, if agreement is not reached by the social partners.

The minimum collectively agreed wages have three main forms.

1. The minimum wage in companies within a sector/industry is at least equal to the national minimum statutory wage, and may be increased by an agreed coefficient.
2. The minimum wage in companies within a sector/industry is the same as the national minimum wage.
3. The minimum wage for the sector/branch/company is calculated based on the minimum insurance income.

The minimum insurance threshold, which varies by economic activity and profession, should not be lower than the national statutory minimum wage. The social partners reached an agreement on the minimum insurance income for 2014 for 58 of the 85 economic activities, but in 2016 the minimum insurance threshold was increased administratively in 45% of the economic sectors because of the increase of the minimum wage, without an agreement with the social partners. The minimum insurance income for 2022 (State Social Security Budget Act 2022) is available on the web page of the National Revenue Agency. Based on the European Commission proposal for a directive on adequate minimum wages in the EU, the statutory minimum wage in Bulgaria might increase incrementally to reach the benchmark of 50% of the average country wage.

The administrative increase in the past four to five years, for example in 2019-2023, supported only by trade unions, but not by employer organisations, has been subject to an active debate. The minimum wage increases from BGN 340 (€174) in 2014 to BGN 560 (€286) in 2019 provoked negative reactions from employer organisations, which stated that the increase is a heavy burden on Bulgarian employers. The national minimum wage was raised again by administrative decisions, to BGN 610 (€312) in 2020 and to BGN 650 (€332) in 2021. The 48th National Assembly accepted a minimum statutory wage mechanism (involving changes to the Labour Code), which came into force on 1 January 2024. This mechanism sets out that the minimum wage for the country for the next calendar year will be set by 1 September of the current year at the rate of 50 % of the average gross wage for a period of 12 months, which will include the last two quarters of the previous year and the first two quarters of the current year. Trade unions stated that this change is not in line with the EU directives, and that the parliament decision invalidates the social dialogue in the NTCC. The nationally representative employer organisations plan to dispute the formula for setting the minimum wage adopted by the parliament (on 1 February 2023) at the European Commission and the International Labour Organization.

The average wage in Bulgaria will continue to grow under the pressure of a strong demand for a skilled workforce and its competitive remuneration within the common European labour market, following the convergence tendency.

Statutory minimum wage, 2017–2023 (BGN (€))

Source: Authors own elaboration.

For more information regarding the level and development of minimum wages, please see Eurofound (2022).

Working time refers to ‘any period during which the worker is working, at the employer’s disposal and carrying out his activity or duties, in accordance with national laws and/or practice’ (Directive 2003/88/EC). This section briefly summarises the regulation of and issues regarding working time, overtime, part-time work and working time flexibility in Bulgaria.

Working time regulation

The Labour Code regulates normal, extended and reduced working time, and part-time, on-call and night work. The maximum normal working time is up to 40 working hours per week, eight working hours per day and five days per week (Article 136). The table below presents data on CLAs that include additional provisions regarding working time.

Collectively agreed working time arrangements (out of the total number of CLAs and employed people covered)

Note: * From 2019, NICA merges all working time arrangements into one category, with options for identification of more than one arrangement reached through the CLA.

Source: NICA, 2022a (adapted from its database on CLAs, 2024).

It is evident that the proportion of agreements on all variations of working time have increased for the period concerned, hinting that perhaps employers have been experiencing a greater need for flexibility. Remote working arrangements have been introduced and the CLAs’ inclusion of clauses related to remote working is constantly increasing.

Overtime regulation

Overtime is generally forbidden in accordance with the Labour Code. It is allowed only exceptionally (Labour Code, Articles 143 and 144) in the following cases: to perform work in connection with the defence of the country; to prevent, control and overcome the effects of disasters; to carry out urgent public works necessary for restoration of water, electricity, heating, sanitation, transport and communication links and medical assistance; to carry out emergency repairs and restoration work in workplaces, machinery or other equipment; to complete the work started, which cannot be done during regular working hours; for intensive seasonal agricultural work.

The duration of overtime in a calendar year for an employee may not exceed 150 hours (Article 146(1), (2) and (3)). In 2021, a new provision was added to this article, allowing up to 300 hours of overtime per year, provided this has been agreed in a CLA. The duration of overtime may not exceed 3 hours of daytime work or 2 hours of night work during two consecutive days, 6 hours of daytime work or 4 hours of night work per calendar week, or 30 hours of daytime work or 20 hours of night work per calendar month. Overtime work must be paid (Labour Code, Article 262), with a premium agreed between the employee and the employer, but not less than +50% for weekdays, +75% for weekend work, +100% for work during official holidays and +50% for work when time averaging is applied.

Part-time work

Rules regarding part-time work in Bulgaria are set out in the Labour Code (Article 138). A reduction of the volume of work could provide the opportunity for the employer to establish up to three months in a calendar year during which employees work part time, after prior consultation with representatives of trade unions or representatives of employees.

There are special provisions (in the Ordinance on the Types of Work that Qualify for Reduced Working Hours) regarding occupations that present health risks that cannot be eliminated, restricted or reduced, but where a reduction in working hours (to six or seven hours per day) results in limiting these risks for employees. In general, part-time work cannot be less than half of the statutory working hours. In a daily calculation of working hours, the daily duration of part-time work may not be less than four hours in a normal eight-hour working day, three-and-a-half hours in a normal seven-hour working day and three hours in a six-hour working day.

Night work

Working at night is labour that is engaged in from 22:00 until 06:00. The normal weekly working time for night work (Labour Code, Article 140 and 140а) in a five-day working week is 35 hours. Up to seven hours can normally be worked each night in a five-day working week. The employer is obliged to provide employees with free food, refreshments and other conditions facilitating the effectiveness of night work. Night work is prohibited for people less than 18 years of age, pregnant employees, women in an advanced stage of in vitro fertilisation treatment, mothers with children up to six years of age and mothers who care for children with disabilities regardless of their age. It is also prohibited for employees who continue their education without interruption of production.

Shift work

When the nature of the work process requires, the work in the company can be organised into two or more shifts (Labour Code, Article 141). The law describes mixed shift work that includes day and night work. The mixed shift of four or more night hours is considered to be a night shift, and as a day shift when it involves less than four hours of night work. The rotation of shifts in the enterprise is set out in the regulations for internal labour order. It is prohibited to assign an employee another work task between two consecutive shifts. For enterprises with a continuous process of work, the employee cannot suspend their work until the arrival of the replacing employee without the permission of the immediate supervisor. In these cases, the immediate superior must take the necessary measures to find a substitute employee.

Weekend work

Weekend work is addressed by the Labour Code (Articles 262 and 264) as a kind of overtime work during days off and official national holidays. The provisions establish the payment of such work: the premium for overtime work during days off is 75% and for national holidays 100% of normal pay.

Rest and breaks

The aim of rest periods is to provide time for a short rest for the employee in the interval between working periods and is a concrete expression of labour protection. It is a constitutional right (Article 48, paragraph 5, of the Constitution), as described in the Labour Code (Articles 151–154) and in the Ordinance on Working Hours, Rests and Holidays. Depending on the nature of work and work organisation, the working day may be divided into two or three parts (Labour Code, Article 139(4)). The lunch break is not included in the working time, while short breaks might be, as advised by the country’s occupational medicine services.

The Labour Code defines three types of rest, as follows.

1. Breaks during the working day (Article 151). The duration of the rests should be established by the internal rules of the enterprise, but one of them should be for meals (not shorter than 30 minutes).
2. Rest between two consecutive working days (Article 152). The minimum duration is 12 hours. Such a rest should also be ensured after each shift by the employer in the case of shift work (Ordinance on Working Hours, Rests and Holidays, Article 20, paragraph 3). The legal requirement is that this rest should be continuous, protected and always ensured in full. The breaks should be arranged so as not to violate the 12-hour continuous period between day breaks.
3. Weekly rest (Article 153) between two consecutive working weeks. It includes two consecutive working days (one of them is Sunday as a rule). Weekly rest can be measured in hours, and the minimum duration is 48 hours. In the case of time averaging for enterprises with a continuous work process and with shift changes, the continuous weekly rest period should not be less than 24 hours.

Working time flexibility

The changes in the Labour Code of 2011 (new sections VIIIa and VІІІb, Chapter 5, Article 107b-p) regulate the working conditions for home-based work and telework.

An employment contract may provide for the performance of employment duties in connection with the manufacture of an output and/or the provision of a service in the employee’s home or in other premises of the employee’s choice outside the employer’s premises, using the employee’s and/or the employer’s equipment, materials and other auxiliary means, in return for remuneration (Article 107b). Homeworkers determine the start, end and distribution of their working time within the statutory duration (Article 107e).

The specific nature of telework and the terms and conditions for its performance should be laid down in the individual employment contract (Article 107h).

More detailed figures are available from Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Surveys. For more detailed information on working time, please consult Eurofound (2016, 2017 and 2021a).

Maintaining health and well-being should be a high priority for workers and employers alike. Health is an asset closely associated with a person’s quality of life and longevity, as well as their ability to work. A healthy economy depends on a healthy workforce: organisations can experience loss of productivity through the ill health of their workers. This section looks at psychosocial risks and health and safety at work in Bulgaria.

Health and safety at work

In Bulgaria, public policy on health and safety at work is the responsibility of the Council of Ministers. National policy on health and safety at work is developed and implemented on the basis of tripartite cooperation at national, sector and regional levels. The National Council on Working Conditions is the standing body responsible for coordination, consultation and cooperation for the development and implementation of occupational health and safety policy at national level. On 23 June 2022, the National Programme for Occupational Safety and Health (2022–2024) came into force. The main objective of the national programme is to identify activities to improve the health and safety of workers in the context of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the green and digital transition, economic and demographic challenges, and changing perceptions of the traditional work environment. The programme reflects the trends set out in the National Programme for Occupational Safety and Health (2018–2020) while ensuring compliance with the guidelines of the EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work 2014–2020.

The national strategy for health and safety at work functions on a tripartite basis. Regional councils for tripartite cooperation on safe and healthy working conditions have been created in all administrative regions. Sectoral and branch councils of working conditions operate at sectoral level. The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy develops, coordinates and implements public policy on health and safety at work. The national focal point of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work is also situated in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. The Ministry of Health manages and coordinates activities for the protection and promotion of health at work. Institutions within the system of the Ministry of Health are the regional health inspectorates, the National Centre for Public Health and Analysis and the National Centre for Radiobiology and Radiation Protection. The NSSI maintains a database on work-related accidents and work-related illnesses. The General Labour Inspectorate is the public body responsible for the overall supervision of compliance with labour law on health and safety at work, as well as for the implementation of conditions of employment. Dialogue between the employer and employees takes place through working conditions committees in enterprises. CLAs in general also include health and safety issues, according to the sector specifics. The Working Conditions Fund of the Minister for Labour and Social Policy provides training for employers, trade union members, members of working conditions committees and groups, and occupational health and safety specialists in enterprises. It supports projects for the diagnosis of occupational diseases and co-finances projects aiming to solve specific problems to improve working conditions.

In 1997, Bulgaria became the first eastern European country to adopt a new and very comprehensive health and safety law.The Law on Health and Safety at Work regulates the rights and obligations of employers, employees, the state institutions and social partners for keeping workplaces healthy and safe. Article 25 of the law legally binds all employers to provide their employees with services delivered by registered occupational health and safety services (OHSSs). These can be established by the employer, by a group of employers or by an external legal entity. The National Assembly, in recognition of the significance and specific nature of OHSS activities and the need to improve the service quality, made amendments in May 2007 to the law making it mandatory for OHSSs to undergo a special registration procedure. The register is kept by the Ministry of Health and, as of February 2023, there are 1,180 registered OHSSs.

The number of cases of temporary disability associated with the main activity of an enterprise is significantly higher than reported by the National Social Insurance Institute, according to the Bulgarian data from the European Working Conditions Survey 2012. This is a result of hospital protocols for mild traumatic disabilities, which mean that some injuries are not declared as occupational accidents. The national statistics show stability in the number of accidents and working days lost. The decreased number of accidents could be caused by the employment shrinkage, underreporting or improvement of working conditions, but there is no information to explain such trends.

The NSSI issues annual reports on its activities (2021), related to various breakdowns of accidents at work. Statistical data are not publicly available. According to the operational data of the National Social Insurance Institute in 2020, 2,309 accidents were registered by the institute, of which 1,901 occurred at the workplace. The number of fatal accidents at work in 2020 was 70 and the number of accidents leading to disability was 4. Calendar days lost from workplace accidents totalled 132,269. In 2021, the NSSI registered 2,392 accidents at work (2,020 at the workplace), and 173,947 calendar days were lost (NSSI, 2024).

Psychosocial risks

Article 8(3) of the Labour Code concerning discrimination and Article 12 of the Law on Health and Safety at Work concerning the use of physiological regimes of work and rest, psychological pressure, monotonous work, forced posture, piece rate and shifts are the main pieces of legislation including texts related to psychosocial risks at work.

Around 50% of employees reported that their job requires working to tight deadlines at least a quarter of the time, and close to one third work longer than 10 hours per day (European Working Conditions Survey 2012).

According to the European Working Conditions Survey 2012, 27% of employees in Bulgaria work more than 10 hours per day and 30% work during weekends. In general, employees report having health problems: about one third have problems with their vision, back pain, headaches and muscle pain and 40% complain of stress. More than 60% report a feeling of general fatigue. Between 20% and 26% report having sleep problems, anxiety and irritation.

Skills are the passport to employment; the more highly skilled an individual, the more employable they are. People with good skills also tend to secure better-quality jobs and better earnings. This section briefly summarises the Bulgarian system for ensuring skills and employability and looks at training provision.

National system for ensuring skills and employability

Vocational guidance, training and education is conducted for professions and specialties included in the list of professions for vocational education and training, which is approved by the Minister for Education and Science after consultation with the Minister for Labour and Social Policy, and the relevant sectoral ministers and the representative organisations of employers and employees at national level. The National Agency for Vocational Education and Training (NAVET) is a government body that licenses activities in vocational education and training and coordinates institutions involved in vocational guidance, training and education. The representatives of social partners are members of the managing body of NAVET and sit on the 17 expert commissions on professional orientations and the list of professions.

Ordinance No. 2 of 13 November 2014 on the terms and conditions for validation of professional knowledge, skills and competence acquired through non-formal education or learning has been in force since 1 January 2015. The institutions that have the right to carry out validation are professional high schools, professional colleges, art schools, sports schools, vocational colleges and vocational training centres. The control of validation is performed by the regional inspectorates of education and NAVET.

Training

Rules regarding professional training and qualifications are set out in the Labour Code (Chapter 11). The employer is obliged to maintain and enhance the professional qualifications of employees so that they can perform their obligations under the employment relationship as their work requires it and develop their future career. Employees are obliged to participate in training organised or financed by the employer to maintain and increase their professional qualifications, improve their professional skills and raise their qualification level in line with the nature of the work performed. The Labour Code provides opportunities for employers to sign an employment contract with a person still in school or training and then enable the student to complete or enhance their qualification while working for a period agreed by both parties, which cannot be longer than six years.

The National Consultative Council for Qualification of the Labour Force, created as a tripartite body within the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, aims to coordinate the development of national policies and strategies on training for acquiring professional qualification for the unemployed and employed. The council creates the conditions for dialogue between the representative organisations of employers and employees at national level as regards lifelong learning and coordinates training needs for acquiring professional qualifications for the unemployed.

The actual provision of paid time for training is not much and depends on the presence of employee representation. In general, such schemes are provided in less than 23% of establishments (European Working Conditions Survey 2019).

Trade union representatives participate in the Governing Council and expert commissions of NAVET, established and acting on the tripartite principle.

The principle of equal treatment requires that all people – and, in the context of the workplace, all workers – have the right to receive the same treatment, and will not be discriminated against on the basis of criteria such as age, sex, disability, nationality, race and religion.

Principles of equality and non-discrimination are included in the Bulgarian Constitution. The main authority concerned with gender equality is the National Gender Equality Council within the Council of Ministers, which was established in 2004. In 2016, the government adopted the Law on Equality between Women and Men, which is the main piece of legislation regulating the institutional mechanism for gender equality in Bulgaria. The same year, the government also adopted a National Strategy for the Promotion of Equality between Women and Men 2016–2020 which has been extended until 2030. The Labour Code prohibits all forms of discrimination, privileges or restrictions based on gender and introduces the principle of equal pay for women and men. Anti-discrimination provisions relating to gender are included in the Social Security Code, the Law on Employment Promotion, the Social Assistance Act, the Higher Education Act, the Law on Defence and Armed Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Law on Protection against Discrimination and other legislation.

The state authority controlling anti-discrimination activities is the Commission for Protection against Discrimination.

Many CLAs include provisions on equality and non-discrimination at work as special measures related to working women.

Equal pay and the gender pay gap

According to the legislation (Labour Code, Article 243), women and men have the right to equal pay for equal work, and this applies to all payments under the employment relationship. A special Law on Equality between Women and Men was adopted in 2016, which is the main piece of legislation regulating the institutional mechanism for gender equality in Bulgaria. According to the Commission for Protection against Discrimination, the high rate of feminisation in certain sectors of the economy, including hotels and restaurants, textiles and leather goods, education, health, medical care and financial intermediation, means that CLAs in those sectors s include gender equality clauses related to wages and holidays.

The national mechanism for gender equality is coordinated by the Commission for Protection against Discrimination and the institution of the national Ombudsman. At legislative level, the National Assembly adopts issues of gender equality raised by its Commission on Human Rights and Complaints as a result of information provided by citizens. The Commission for Protection against Discrimination is an independent specialised state authority that oversees prevention and protection from discrimination and ensures equal opportunities. The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (and its departments Policy for People with Disabilities, Equal Opportunities and Social Benefits and Equal Opportunities, Non-Discrimination and Social Benefits) is part of the national mechanism for equality, responsible for the development and coordination of the state policy on gender equality in all areas. The General Labour Inspectorate, an executive agency, controls compliance with the provisions on protection of employed women and promoting employment. In the Report on equality of men and women in Bulgaria 2019 (Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, 2020), the General Labour Inspectorate states that even during its audits wage-setting is not transparent; therefore, the risk of unequal pay remains.

Dimitrov (2021) reports in the Annual review of labour relations and social dialogue that the pay gap exists mainly because of the concentration of female workers in low-paid sectors. According to him, there is no concrete evidence for a gender pay gap within individual workplaces or at least there is no statistics available.

The National Action Plan for Promotion of Gender Equality, produced in 2018, does not seem to reflect any of the pay transparency instruments set out in the 2014 European Commission recommendation on strengthening the principle of equal pay between men and women through transparency.

The table below shows a somewhat fluctuating gender pay gap for the period reviewed, with a 1.4 percentage point increase in 2019 compared with 2010 and a 1.4 percentage point decrease from 2019 to 2020.

Gender pay gap, 2010–2021 (%)

Sources: NSI, 2024 (preliminary data).

The latest report by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy on gender equality is from 2010. The abovementioned national strategy has not been updated, and Bulgaria did not support the Istanbul Convention. The integrated national system for information, monitoring and assessment of gender equality, coordinating systematic collection, storage and analysis of data by gender, proposed in 2017, has not been implemented yet. For this reason, the most recent (November 2017) report on the implementation of the Commission recommendation on strengthening the principle of equal pay between men and women through transparency lacks data from Bulgaria.

In 2021, the Open Society Institute published an analysis on public attitudes towards equality between men and women, with the main focus on the violence against women. The trade unions have launched different initiatives to address the issue of equal pay. For instance, the Federation of Transport Trade Unions in Bulgaria popularised the issue during the International Equal Pay Day. CITUB’s information portal for collective bargaining publishes good practices in the drawing up of CLA provisions that focus on work–life balance. Social partners regularly participate in various conferences and seminars and in round tables to discuss equality between women and men. In 2016, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy launched the Gender Project for Bulgaria, with a committee tasked with working with women, children, young people and families at CITUB. The Bulgarian Union of Teachers designated November 2016 the ‘Month for Equal Pay’ and invited the general public to its information day for equal pay.

An article published on 13 April 2021 mentions the Equal Pay Directive and pay transparency in relation to the consultation procedure between the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, employers and trade unions. CITUB insists that companies with a gender pay gap of more than 5% should not participate in public procurement. The ministry is considering legal amendments to accommodate the directive’s provisions.

Quota regulations

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the National Employment Agency implement employment policy for people with permanent disabilities. The Law for Civil Servants (Article 9a) sets a quota for working places for people with disabilities (Article 9a): at least 2% of the total number of administrative positions in public service establishments that employ more than 50 people must be offered to people with disabilities. According to the Law for People with Disabilities (2018; Article 38), the quota for the private sector is one person with a permanent disability for employers with 50–99 employees and 2% of the establishment’s average workforce for employers with 100 or more employees .

Employer organisations

• Bulgarian Industrial Association
• Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Union for Private Economic Enterprise
• Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association
• Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria

Trade unions

• Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria
• Confederation of Labour Podkrepa

Government

• Ministry of Labour and Social Policy
• National Institute for Conciliation and Arbitration
• General Labour Inspectorate
• National Employment Agency
• Registered companies for intermediary employment activities abroad
• National Agency for Vocational Education and Training

Labour-related legislation

• Labour Code
• Social Insurance Code
• Employment Promotion Act
• State Budget Act 2022
• Occupational Health and Safety Act
• Persons with Disabilities Act

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