30.12.2022
WHAT IS THE MOST URGENT CHANGE IN LABOR LAW
Comment from the specialist
Despite the unstable political situation, amendments and additions to the Labor Code in Bulgaria were adopted in mid-2022, aiming at the security and predictability of the employment relationship, while preserving its flexibility, as well as improving the possibilities for reconciling work and family obligations.
An important change in this step was the change in the current legislation, which would regulate the individual right of the father (adoptive) to parental leave with a guaranteed right to compensation. Before the 2022 changes, only the mother could enjoy this right.
Through the changes in the Labor Code, some of the rights of employees regarding the information provided by the employer when concluding employment contracts were added, as well as the obligation of the employer to provide information regarding the options and ways to leave work, if the employee so wishes.
Legislation already enables the worker or employee to enter into employment contracts with other employers to perform work outside the working hours established for him under the main employment relationship (external compatibility), unless a prohibition is stipulated in his individual employment contract under his main employment legal relationship due to trade secret protection and/or conflict of interest prevention.
I recall that before the change, the reasons for such a ban were not specified, and thus each employer subjectively had the right to impose a ban on the worker or employee to work in another place. Of course, this does not completely exhaust the changes that were made to the Labor Code in 2022.
What remained unfinished regarding the change in the labor legislation and why it is necessary to take decisive steps towards the legal amendments, answers to the questions are provided by Dr. Todor Kapitanov, an expert in the field of labor law.
Unfortunately, despite the many opportunities on the part of the rulers and despite the serious demands of the workers and the trade union organizations representing them, the problem in the legislation with the regime of introducing the summary calculation of working hours, which for inexplicable reasons in Bulgaria deviates from the international ones, still remains unsolved. requirements, which in practice leads to a deterioration of the health and safety conditions of work, taking away part of the usual free time of the workers and disrupting the balance of the time intended for work, personal time and time for the family.
That is why changes should be urgently made to the legislation, with which the maximum duration of the weekly working time when calculated in aggregate is changed from 56 hours to 52 hours, and such a working regime is only possible in productions with an uninterrupted working regime, as European directives and conventions indicate.
If measures are not taken in this direction, the probability of social tension among workers, expressed through protest actions throughout the country, is extremely high.
Along with inflation and the political crisis in the country, such actions would further deepen the social crisis in Bulgaria. This is another additional reason for the authorities to immediately take action in the direction of regulating the Labor Code in accordance with the requirements of European legislation.
