09.10.2024

HOW MUCH SHOULD WE BE PAYED IF WE ARE ON DUTY OR AVAILABLE

The lack of staff in Bulgaria, and in Europe, is one of the reasons why the two forms of additional employment - on-call and available time - are gaining popularity among employers. The positive growth rates of the economy also contribute to their popularity, especially in industries with a continuous cycle of activity. The Covid crisis accelerated the entry of the time available format.

Availability time is applied in sectors such as security and guarding, healthcare, manufacturing, call centers, etc.

These two forms are also an opportunity for employers to give additional financial incentives to employees. The pluses for the workers - apart from the additional remuneration, which is the same as for overtime work with the corresponding deductions, is also the insurance contribution for the two types of additional employment. Both employers and workers benefit from the use of the most diverse forms of employment.

The introduction of these additional forms of work is related to factors such as the continuity of some productions, and not to other subjective factors, such as, for example, greater working capacity during certain parts of the day.

Bulgaria does not differ from the average European level in terms of the number of employees who are on duty or available.

Similarities and differences

The main difference between duty and available time is that workers in the second form do not have the obligation to be at their place of work all the time, and this only happens when there is a specific task to be performed.

In the Bulgarian legislation, both forms of employment are introduced in the Labor Code and in the corresponding by-laws, and in the last year, due to the need to harmonize with the requirements of Community law, some restrictions were introduced. Among them is the requirement that workers or employees cannot be assigned to be available on two consecutive working days or on two consecutive working shifts, as well as on more than two days off in a month, and these restrictions do not apply to the medics.

According to the law, on-call work is an organization of work in the case of daily or cumulative calculation of working hours, in which the employees are at their workplace and perform or are ready to perform their work duties. The time on duty is included in the working hours specified in the individual employment contract of the worker or employee. For the time on duty, the employee is paid the agreed remuneration.

​ In the case of available work, when this is required by the special nature of the activity, an obligation can be agreed that the worker or employee is available to the employer outside the territory of the enterprise, ready (if necessary) to start performing his work duties. Time available is not counted as working time if the employee has not been assigned a task to perform. If the worker or the employee is on an irregular working day, the time of availability is established in the Regulations for the internal work order of the enterprise, and in enterprises where the labor organization allows, working hours with variable limits can be established. The need for the additional form of employment - available, allows the employer in a certain situation to be able to take advantage of his worker for a certain job and for this reason he does not have to be permanently at his workplace.

Money and rest

Work actually performed during available time is counted and paid as overtime. Since duty is part of working time, the worker or employee is paid the agreed remuneration.

If we have actually worked during availability, the law has provided that the worker or employee is provided with the minimum amount of continuous inter-day and weekly rest. The maximum duration of the time of placement obligation cannot be more than 100 hours in one month, for one day on working days - no more than 12 hours, and on holidays - no more than 48 hours. Generally speaking, the more employees or workers from a company are available or put on duty, the fewer times a month they will have to perform these forms of labor, but due to the shortage of personnel, this is difficult to implement.

For the moment, according to the Ordinance on the structure and organization of the salary, the minimum amount of remuneration for the time available is BGN 0.10/hour, but there is no obstacle to agreeing higher in an individual and/or collective labor contract.

Individual employment contracts

Our agreement to be on call or available is evidenced by the signing of an individual employment contract, but this can also be regulated in the collective employment agreement. The individual contract also stipulates the time required for reporting to work, and only after its signing is the possibility for the employer to additionally approve nominal schedules for the time available or on duty determined by law. In case of doubts that he will not be able to fulfill the provisions of the individual contract in relation to duty or availability, the worker or employee may expressly declare that he will not perform overtime or night work, as well as work during national holidays, but this must to do so before signing the contract.

However, the normative base does not exclude, even after the signing of the individual contract, the employee to agree with the employer to refuse additional employment with an annex to the individual contract. In this case, it is a matter of negotiating the will of both parties, and if the employer needs a certain staff, he relies on him, given that he has concluded an individual employment contract with the employee under conditions of having his workforce available. According to the Labor Code, the employer can impose disciplinary penalties for violations of labor discipline.

In the individual or in the collective labor contract, the place where the worker is located during the time available, as well as the time required for reporting to work, should be indicated. With changes to the Ordinance on working hours, breaks and vacations, an obligation is introduced for the employer to approve nominal schedules for available time, which are kept for at least 3 years, as well as an obligation to familiarize employees with these schedules in advance. Another new obligation for the available time is to issue a follow-up order specifying the date and time of reporting to work and the duration of the work, which should be drawn up within 3 days from the day the work is given.