Labor Law Consultation

26.03.2021

OUR LABOR RIGHTS DURING A LOCKDOWN

Bulgaria is in its third consecutive lockdown due to the COVID-19 epidemic and new restrictive measures are in force throughout the country, closing almost everything - schools and kindergartens, theaters, restaurants, malls, gyms and more. What are the rights of working Bulgarians during a lockdown.

According to the legislation in Bulgaria, the provisions of the Labor Code and other regulations governing employment relationships, the measures are valid throughout the country and cover all workers, regardless of whether they perform activities from their permanent job or perform it remotely (eg regime at the home office).

This means that all legal rights related to pay, working hours, breaks and holidays, benefits, safe working conditions, etc., should be applied in exactly the same way as their application in a normal working environment. The commitments of both the employee and the employer to the observance of the rights and obligations under law and contract between them should be unchanged.

In the conditions of lockdown and emergency epidemiological situation, additional legal provisions are in force and in force, regulating the following labor rights, the most important of which are the following:

  • When due to a declared state of emergency or declared epidemic emergency by order of the employer or by order of a state body the work of the enterprise, part of the enterprise or individual employees is terminated, the employer has the right to provide paid annual leave and without his consent, including of an employee who has not acquired 4 months of work experience.
  • The employer is obliged to allow the use of paid annual leave or unpaid leave in case of a state of emergency or a state of emergency at the request of:
  • a pregnant worker or employee, as well as an employee in an advanced stage of in-vitro treatment;
  • mother or adoptive mother of a child up to 12 years of age or of a child with a disability, regardless of his / her age;
  • an employee who is a single father or adoptive parent of a child up to 12 years of age or of a child with a disability regardless of his / her age;
  • an employee who has not reached the age of 18;
  • an employee with permanently reduced working capacity of 50 and over 50 percent;
  • employed worker or employee;
  • an employee suffering from a disease specified in an ordinance of the Minister of Health.
  • Up to 90 working days unpaid leave will be recognized as length of service and health insurance rights will be uninterrupted in 2021 (this allows people to acquire and maintain insurance rights for pensions, maternity benefits, unemployment, illness) for more -long period of time.)
  • People on unpaid leave will not lose their pension rights due to interruption of the internship. Workers must pay health contributions of BGN 26 per month in order not to lose their health insurance rights while on unpaid leave.
  • The personal labor pensions are recalculated ex officio, and after January 1, 2021 the personal labor pensions will be recalculated ex officio, with the additional length of service acquired by the pensioner in the period after the granting or after the last recalculation of the pension. The official recalculation will take place from 1 April 2020.
  • The term of the expert decisions of the Labor Expert Medical Commissions (LEMC) and the National Medical Expert Commission (NMEC) for determining permanently reduced working capacity/type and degree of expired disability has been extended during the state of emergency and the emergency epidemic. situation and their cancellation for three months.

     • LEMCs can make a decision only on documents, without on-site inspection.