Labour Code amended

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In June 2004, the Bulgarian parliament passed a number of amendments to the Labour Code, covering matters such as the content of employment contracts, redundancy procedures, women's night and overtime work, overtime pay and parental leave.

In early June 2004, parliament passed a number of amendments to the Labour Code at second reading stage. The amendments seek to comply with various European Commission recommendations.

The amendments formulate in a new way the obligatory minimum contents of the individual employment contract. The contract must in future determine:

• the place of work;

• the title of the position and the nature of work;

• the date of signature of the contract and the date it enters into force;

• the duration of the contract;

• the basic and additional paid annual leave;

• the notice of termination of the employment contract that must be given by either party (the term of the notice must be the same for both parties);

• the basic remuneration, as well as additional remuneration of a permanent nature, and its frequency; and

• the duration of the working day or working week.

The changes lay down a number of new obligations for the employer in the event of collective redundancies. When an employer plans such redundancies, it will be obliged to start consultations with workers’ representatives at least 45 days before the planned date of the redundancies. The employer must provide information in writing about:

• the reasons for the planned redundancies;

• the number of employees to be made redundant;

• the total number of employees in the enterprise, broken down by their functions and occupations;

• the planned criteria for the selection of employees for redundancy; and

• the date when the redundancies are planned to occur.

In order to provide equal working conditions for women and men, the amendments remove the current absolute prohibition on night and overtime work for mothers with children up to six years of age and mothers who take care of children with disabilities, regardless of their age. These workers can now declare in writing their agreement to be assigned to night and overtime work.

An important amendment has also been made with regard to payment for overtime work. In cases when an employer orders overtime work during the two-day weekly rest period, it should not only pay the relevant wage premium, but also grant the workers an additional uninterrupted rest of at least 24 hours during the following week.

Finally, the amended Labour Code provides all parents (including adoptive parents) working on the basis of an employment contract a new right to unpaid parental leave of up to six months in the period up until the child's eighth birthday.

The new amendments to the Labour Code resulted from discussion within the National Council for Tripartite Partnership (BG0307204F), which lasted about a year. However, the first reactions of employers in a number of industries have been negative, especially regarding the new obligation to provide mandatory time off in compensation for overtime work.