site.btaSocial Partners Fail to Reach Agreement to Relaxed Terms for Import of Skilled Workers from non-EU Countries

Sofia, April 24 (BTA) - The Tripartite Council of government, trade unions and employers failed to agree Tuesday on relaxed terms for issue of the so called "Blue Card" which allows skilled workers from non-EU countries to work in Bulgaria. The failure to reach an agreement was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov, who chairs the Tripartite Council.

Employers desperately wanted the changes to deal with what they claim to be a severe shortage of staff in some businesses. The trade unions have been adamant throughout that measures are needed to attract skilled Bulgarians back home instead of easing the import of workers from third countries.

Put forward by the government as revisions to the implementing regulations to the Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Act, the changes would have stepped up the procedure for issue of a work permit to a seasonal worker who has previously worked in Bulgaria in the past five years. Also, they would have scrapped the labour market test and increased the proportion of third-country nationals working at a given enterprise from 10 per cent now to 20 per cent (and to 35 per cent for small and mid-sized companies).

Simeonov also said that the social partners unanimously voted down draft revisions to the Social Insurance Code tabled by Kornelia Ninova (Socialist), Tsvetan Tsvetanov (GERB) and a group of MPs due to its incompatibility with the effective legislation. The proposal was for extending a pension to the parents of military personnel who have died during overseas missions. The proposed revision was meant for the parents of 23 Bulgarian soldiers who died while on mission in Iraq and Cambodia.

The social partners also failed to reach consensus on a government-proposed ordinance on generation and storage of electronic documents in the employment dossier of an employee.