27.12.2020
There are over 224,000 unemployed people in Bulgaria
52% of them are people without qualifications and specialty
According to the Employment Agency, currently the registered unemployed in the country are just over 224,000 people.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy reports that as of December 22, the measure 60/40, to support businesses from the effects of the coronavirus, has saved nearly 250,000 jobs in 11,000 companies.
The covid crisis broke the positive trends in employment and unemployment, which have been observed since 2014, commented the chief expert on the labor market in Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB).
"The economic recession caused by the pandemic in 2020 has had a strong impact on the labor market and the positive trend in both employment and unemployment over the past six years has been reversed both in the European Union and in Bulgaria. Turned out to be the groups of people who are without qualification and education, and on the other hand those who were engaged in temporary employment, in seasonal employment", Atanaska Todorova commented to BNR.
Regarding the unemployed without qualification and specialty in our country, she added that this group is 52% of all registered unemployed people this year. "When we have an oversaturation of the labor market with educated people, those who are not educated fall out of the labor market. He throws them out. Every employer prefers whoever hires to be able to read the instructions that will be given to him, and not for anyone to read them to him," she explained.
So far, the peak of unemployment was reported in May, when registered at the Labor Offices exceeded 295,000 people.
The Employment Agency expects the average annual number of registered in the scenario of rapid recovery of the sectors "Hotel and Restaurant" and "Manufacturing" to be 253,000 people, and in case this does not happen, their number is expected to increase to 274,000 people.
27.12.2020
Projects worth 275 million euros between Bulgaria and Romania over 5 years
From 2015 until today, 172 projects with a total value of over 275 million euros have been implemented under the Interreg V-A Cross-border Cooperation Program between Bulgaria and Romania. This became clear from the Information Bulletin for 2020, which presents the progress reported in the implementation of the INTERREG V-A Romania-Bulgaria Program.
Thanks to the program, 45 integrated tourist products have been created, which has contributed to over 85,000 more visits to various attractions in the country and our northern neighbor. 162 initiatives to promote employment and labor mobility have also been implemented. No less attention was paid to risk management, especially the prevention of floods, landslides and other similar disasters. Nearly 69 km of roads have been rehabilitated, and another 150 km of road sections are in varying degrees of implementation.
In order to provide support to the beneficiaries of the program, they also had the opportunity to request a period of suspension of the relevant projects during the pandemic. However, almost all of them have decided to continue their activities. Of all 67 projects being implemented in the current 2020, only 3 projects have been requested to be suspended due to the pandemic.
We remind you that the Interreg V-A Romania - Bulgaria Program is implemented digitally through its own electronic system (eMS). With it, everything is electronic, starting with the submission of project applications, signing contracts, additional agreements and other documents necessary for the implementation of a project, including electronic signature.
Also in 2020, the Interreg V-A Romania-Bulgaria Program has a direct contribution to the measures taken to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Projects have been funded to address health interventions (including hospital equipment in border regions), emergency risk reduction and others, the main aim of which is to reduce the spread of the disease.
In the next programming period 2021-2027, the focus will be on a more connected, greener and more social Europe (Objective 3 Connected Europe and Objective 5 Europe closer to citizens). The Euro Velo 6 route, better known as the Danube Bicycle Road, which is over 3,600 kilometers long, is also expected to be developed as a matter of priority.
27.12.2020
It will be signed by anyone who wishes to get the vaccine
The Ministry of Health has published a declaration of informed consent to be vaccinated against COVID-19. It will be signed by anyone who wishes to get the vaccine.
The three names of the citizen, PIN, ID number and permanent address are entered in it. Consent may also be given by a parent, guardian or trustee.
The declaration states that the signatory is aware of the benefits of the vaccine against COVID-19 that has been selected and its trade name and agrees to have it given to him.
We also consent to the occurrence of adverse reactions after vaccination, to report their occurrence at any time to medical professionals or the Executive Agency for Medicines.
The date of vaccination is entered in the document, and the vaccinated person and the doctor who sets the dose put their signatures.
The Minister of Health has already issued an order with which the vaccination in our country will start on December 27.
27.12.2020
More than 180,000 free vignettes for people with disabilities are running out
In the first four months of 2021, 181,756 electronic vignettes issued through the Agency for Social Assistance to People with Disabilities expire. People with more than 50 percent reduced working capacity, as well as families raising children with permanent disabilities are entitled to a free one-year e-vignette, reminded by the Road Infrastructure Agency.
The right is for a car with engine power up to 160 hp.
More than half of the free vignettes expire in January 2021 - 119,814. A total of 227,725 are e-vignettes provided in 2020 to people with disabilities. They are for over BGN 22 million and are at the expense of the budget of the Road Infrastructure Agency.
Checking the validity of e-vignettes issued through the Social Assistance Agency can be done on the website of RIA www.api.bg and on the website www.bgtoll.bg. The direct link to check is https://check.bgtoll.bg.
It is recommended that applications for the renewal of free vignettes be submitted as their expiry date approaches.
People who are entitled to a free vignette must submit an application to the Social Assistance Directorate at the current address - in person, by letter or electronically with an electronic signature. The social services process the documents within 7 days. The Social Assistance Agency sends the processed applications on a daily basis to the Road Infrastructure Agency, which issues the e-vignette within the next working day.
When transferring ownership of the vehicle, changing the license plates or scrapping the car, for example, the free e-vignette does not follow the car. In this case, the person entitled must notify the Road Infrastructure Agency within three working days in order to be able to receive a new free vignette until the expiry of the first one.
In case of difficulties and need for consultation, those wishing to be issued a free e-vignette through the Social Assistance Agency can contact the customer service center of the National Toll Management at tel .: 0700 10 876 or in writing by e-mail: info@bgtoll.bg.
23.12.2020
MEASURE 60/40 WILL CONTINUE UNTIL SEPTEMBER 2021
"Keep me" will be transformed from January 1 into 75% of workers' insurance income
"We are extending the 60/40 anti-crisis measure until September 2021. At the next Council of Ministers on Wednesday, we will accept BGN 106 million for pensioners in January - BGN 50 each, as we continue to give during the pandemic."
This was stated by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov during a working meeting with members of the government.
"We are continuing the 60/40 measure until September 2021, so that there is no speculation about how long the money is," said Prime Minister Borissov.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov stressed that all other measures to support business during the pandemic continue to work.
The Minister of Labor and Social Policy Denitsa Sacheva reports that the measures 60/40 and 80/20 will continue to operate next year, and the measure for closed businesses "Keep me" will be transformed from January 1 into 75% of the insurance income of workers for October 2020 and they will receive more funds.
BGN 50 million are provided for the new design of "Keep me". The measure 80/20 will be financed with European funds, as the goal of the Operational Program "Human Resources Development" is a reorganized resource in the amount of BGN 40 million. "For the measure 60/40 next year we have BGN 600 million, which will be enough to extend it almost until September, so employers and employees must be calm that there will be support from the state," said Mrs. Sacheva.
Minister Sacheva summarized the state's support so far under the three socio-economic measures. "So far, under the measure 60/40, BGN 627 million have been paid, 250,000 jobs have been preserved. Under the measure 80/20 with a supplement of BGN 250 for hotels, restaurants, tourism and transport, BGN 23 million have been paid, a total of 24,858 jobs have been preserved,” said Mrs. Sacheva. Regarding the measure "Keep me", which is currently known as "BGN 24 per day" and which is to be transformed next year, the Minister of Labor and Social Policy said that in December 4,653 applications were received from employers for compensation of 22,839 employees. "Payments have already started to be made, and will be paid during the days between Christmas and New Year," said Mrs. Sacheva.
With regard to targeted assistance for families with children currently studying remotely, there are 40,000 applications and 23,520 families have been approved.
"With over BGN 40 million we will support small and medium-sized enterprises, and in December 95 contracts were concluded under the procedure "Improvement of production capacity in small and medium-sized enterprises". This was reported by the Minister of Economy, Mr. Lachezar Borisov. He informed that under the voucher scheme for providing services for information and communication technologies, 450 vouchers worth a total of nearly BGN 8 million have been issued so far. "Absolutely all 25 contracts for financing innovation projects worth BGN 7 million have been signed through the National Innovation Fund," the economy minister said. He reports that under the procedure for liquidity support for medium-sized enterprises, which is worth up to BGN 150,000 per enterprise, 1285 project proposals have been ranked. There are also reserves, with which the total number of project proposals becomes 1703.
"What we have done is to restructure the budget of the Operational Program "Innovation and Competitiveness" to provide the full resource for all 1703 project proposals," added Mr. Lachezar Borisov.
The Minister also informed that by the end of the day new conditions for applying for the business support procedure, which is carried out together with the National Revenue Agency, will be published.
22.12.2020
A NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES FOR THE PERIOD 2021-2030 HAS BEEN APPROVED
The Government has adopted a National Strategy for People with Disabilities for the period 2021-2030. Its implementation will contribute to the creation of better conditions and opportunities for people with disabilities to exercise their rights and participate in various spheres of public life on an equal footing with other Bulgarian citizens.
The strategic goals of the document are to create conditions for independent living and social inclusion of people with disabilities in an accessible environment; to improve their standard of living, as well as their access to social protection, quality inclusive education, health care, employment and appropriate working conditions.
It is envisaged that these objectives will be achieved through measures grouped into seven interrelated and integrated priorities with the respective expected results of implementation. The measures correspond to the leading policies for promoting social inclusion outlined in other strategic documents and national programs.
The Strategy defines the main focuses of the policy in the field of rights of people with disabilities as horizontal policies related to the implementation of policies on the labor market, education, health, ensuring the sustainability and adequacy of social payments, transport and information technology, regional development and others.
The Strategy is expected to be implemented by 2030 through Action plans. The monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the strategic goals will be performed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy on the basis of the information received from the line ministries, institutions and organizations, and the monitoring results will be presented in reports for approval by the Council of Ministers.
22.12.2020
WHAT IS THE SALARY WHEN WORKING ON HOLIDAYS?
There are many people in Bulgaria who will be at work during the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays.
In this regard, and on the basis of divergent information from various sources, workers raise clearly and specifically the question of what is the increase in pay they are entitled to for work during the holidays.
The law in Bulgaria gives a clear answer to this question.
These workers and employees, for whom the official holiday is a day of work and service, are provided with increased pay for their work. According to the Labor Code for work on public holidays, regardless of whether it is overtime or not, the employee is paid as agreed, but not less than twice the amount of basic wages for the time worked. public holidays are often accompanied by overtime work, for which the law provides for increased remuneration.
The overtime work is paid with an increase agreed between the employee and the employer, but not less than:
When working during public holidays is also overtime, it is paid separately and 100% increase in the basic salary for the time worked, unless a larger increase is agreed between the employee and the employer. In this case, for 8 hours worked, with daily reporting of working hours and 8-hour working day, the employee will be paid as follows:
- One basic average daily salary;
- Additional remuneration for work on an official holiday;
- Additional remuneration for overtime work on an official holiday.
Example:
If the average daily gross salary is BGN 50, then compared to the above, the employee will receive as follows:
In cases where the work on a public holiday is not overtime, as this day is included in the monthly work schedule and has the normal length of daily working hours, the employee is paid only an additional increase of one basic average daily wage.
Double salary would be due when the scheduled employee has to work on the holiday. However, if he is not included in the schedule and the employer calls him to work, the law requires that he be paid four times the wage. This is because a 100% increase for overtime is calculated on the normal wage for work on a public holiday, which, as we have said, is double the daily wage.
Twice the remuneration is paid when the work done is both overtime because it is done outside the established working hours and a second time - again doubled (100% increase) because the work is done on a public holiday.
The doubling in these cases is in direct proportion to the doubling of the effort, inconvenience, deprivation and stress suffered by the employee who works overtime on public holidays. And this makes four times the daily wage.
Unless otherwise agreed, the increased pay shall be calculated on the remuneration determined by the employment contract.
If the employer has introduced a summary calculation of working hours, the rule is the same: for work on public holidays, whether overtime or not, the employee is paid as agreed, but not less than twice the amount of his work. remuneration. And the overtime work in the summary calculation of working time is paid with an additional increase of 50%.
Reference:
in Art. 262, art. 263 and Art. 264 of the Labor Code
22.12.2020
UNTIL THEY WILL BENEFIT BETTER CONDITIONS
The grant for small and medium enterprises through working capital will be paid after notification by the European Commission, said the spokesman of the National Revenue Agency (NRA) Rosen Bachvarov. Companies must have up to 250 employees and be registered before October 1, 2020. And the maximum aid that a business can receive is BGN 150,000.
Within days, the requirement that only companies without obligations to the traesury will be able to apply will be abolished. With changes in the law voted on Friday, only companies with unpaid debts, established by an audit act, will not be able to receive free financial support.
The rest will be able to receive for the period of closing 10% or 20% of their turnover for the same period last year. But for these changes to take effect, they must be published in the State Gazette, which is expected to happen today or next Tuesday. "Therefore, we advise companies to wait for the lighter conditions to enter into force and then apply," said Rosen Bachvarov, a spokesman for the National Revenue Agency. Along with the relaxed conditions, there will be no need for a document to prove whether the company is micro, small or medium. And the inspections for the activity of the establishments will be done automatically through the Labor Inspectorate. He added that the request for approval of the scheme from Brussels was sent at the end of last week and intensive talks are currently underway on the case.
The recruitment of projects began on December 21 and will continue until January 20, 2021. Applications are submitted only electronically through the Electronic Services Portal of the NRA.
It will be able to cover current expenses, including salaries, the revenue agency explained. The money cannot be used to buy goods for direct sale. Companies that produce, process and sell tobacco and tobacco products will also not receive money under the scheme. The maximum amount of support is up to BGN 150,000. Assistance under this scheme will be available to micro-enterprises with a staff of up to 10 people and a turnover or asset value of up to BGN 3.9 million, small enterprises (up to 50 people and a turnover of up to BGN 19.5 million) and medium-sized enterprises people and turnover up to BGN 97.5 million or value of assets up to BGN 84 million).
The condition for support is that these companies have ceased or limited their activities as a result of the orders of the Minister of Health for anti-epidemic measures regarding the coronavirus pandemic. It is permissible, for example, for the participation of restaurants that are currently working with food deliveries to their homes, i.e. they have not completely ceased their activities.
For the calculation of the financial support for the new companies (registered until October 2020) October will be taken as the base month. Exactly how the new companies will be supported will be specified in the coming days, the NRA spokesman commented.
18.12.2020
IS PAY AT WORK DIFFERENT FROM HOMEWORK
In recent months, the topic of pay during work from home has become more and more topical, with the most controversial question being how to measure whether we are consolidating all our working time and if not, whether we deserve the full pay for which we have concluded our employment contract.
It should be noted that employers in practice constantly raise the question of whether and how much should be paid to an employee who is not fully charged during their working hours during the day.
These questions, despite their logic at first glance, have their clear and unambiguous answers, which are regulated by labor legislation in Bulgaria.
Let's imagine the following situation: What happens if, for example, in an online store for a certain time of day there are no orders from customers and users of a particular site? The employee, who is obliged to process the orders and hand them over to the courier afterwards from his home, is obviously not closely involved throughout the day. Or he had only two processing orders for the day - one at the beginning of the day and the other at the end. Is the employee employed or not during the time he does not process orders?
In the employment relationship, the employee has a fixed working time, a specific job, uses the premises and tools of his employer and is obliged to obey his legal orders, i.e. employment is performed by a worker in a workshop, an employee in an office, a waiter or a salesman, who must be at his workplace for 8 hours a day. It is the employer's commitment to consolidate this working time with certain tasks related to the contract, the opportunities and, above all, the job description of the employee.
The provisions of the Labor Code in Bulgaria apply to everyone and throughout the country, regardless of whether we do our work from home or from the office. The law is the same for everyone.
An employment relationship exists when the subject of the contract is not to achieve a certain result (sewing clothes, laying tiles, etc.), but to provide labor, i.e. the very laying of labor.
The obligations of the employee in the performance of the assigned work are described in the Labor Code. One of these obligations is related to the use of all working time to perform the assigned work and compliance with internal rules adopted by the company.
The culpable non-fulfillment of the labor obligations is a violation of the labor discipline. In these cases, the employer has the opportunity to impose one of the disciplinary sanctions provided for in the Labor Code - a remark, a warning of dismissal or dismissal.
The possible penalties are exhaustively indicated and it is not provided that in case the person does not perform the assigned work, no remuneration will be paid. It is not uncommon for employees to experience the arbitrariness of their employer, including in connection with deductions from wages, such as deductions for being late for work/meeting, talking on the phone, etc. Also, some employers impose a kind of "fines", which the legislator has not provided as a type of financial sanction against the employee.
The law states that without the consent of the employee no deductions can be made from his salary, except in the case of received advances, overpaid amounts due to technical errors, taxes, which under special laws may be deducted from wages, social security contributions, which are at the expense of the employee, seizures imposed by the respective order and other deductions, exhaustively listed in the law.
Reference:
Art. 126 of the Labor Code
Art. 186 of the Labor Code
Art. 210, para. 4 of the Labor Code
Art. 272, para 1 of the Labor Code
17.12.2020
WHICH BUSINESSES CAN RECEIVE AID OF UP TO 20% OF TURNOVER
New aid of BGN 156 million, provided by the Operational Program "Innovation and Competitiveness", will help micro, small and medium enterprises that are affected by the temporary anti-epidemic measures in the country and have been forced to suspend or limit their activities, such as shops and restaurants in malls, cafes and restaurants, nightclubs, private kindergartens and centers, which were forcibly closed in November this year. They must have up to 250 employees and be registered before 1 October 2020.
The aid will be paid for the period based on the two orders of the Minister of Health, one is in the period 14-30 November, and the scope of the second order is 27 November - 21 December. It is possible that the company falls within the period of both orders - from November 14 to December 21.
The closed shops in the shopping malls and the malls themselves, which are run by medium-sized enterprises, will be supported by 10%. The rest, for example restaurants and bars, are in the range of 20% of turnover.
There is an exception for businesses participating in the rural development, fisheries and aquaculture Program, financial sector companies, companies that engage in gambling or produce and trade in tobacco.
The aid amounts to BGN 150,000 per enterprise, and the costs for water, electricity, rent, purchase of raw materials will be eligible, but not for salaries or purchase of goods to be resold. Each company can apply with one project, but for all its sites. The application period is two weeks, and for payment one week, with the condition that the payment can start only after approval by the European Commission (EC), as the used 156 million BGN are under OP "Innovation and Competitiveness".
The aid will be calculated on the basis of a percentage of the turnover reported during the period of discontinued operation, and for those registered in 2020, the basis will be the turnover for October this year. Documents can be submitted entirely electronically, on the electronic services portal of the National Revenue Agency, and for this purpose you will only need an electronic signature. Applications will be able to be submitted from December 21 (Monday), and the deadline for this is 14 days from that date. The NRA will make automated inspections and, if necessary, will be checked after the payment of the funds.
Companies currently benefiting from other support measures, including 60/40 and 80/20, can apply for this program but cannot cover salary costs.
The NRA clarified that the companies should indicate the amount of their turnover without VAT included in it, and for the entire amount will be needed - cash turnover and bank transactions, as the combination of the two components will represent the sum of the company's turnover, which will be charge 10 or 20% respectively.
