site.btaEmployers Call for Further Simplification of Procedure for Hire of Third-Country Workers,Unions Slam Proposal

Sofia, January 31 (BTA) - Employers want the procedure for hire of third-country workers to be further relaxed in order to deal with a severe shortage of labour. During a meeting with the government and the unions on Wednesday, they called for scrapping or relaxing a restriction which allows an employer to hire no more than 10 per cent of workers from third countries. The trade unions are firmly against such proposals and slammed them as social dumping.

The Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA) wants employers to be allowed to hire up to 30 per cent of third-country workers - or scrap the cap altogther. The Bulgarian Industrial Association want the effective cap to be raised to 20 per cent.

The employers argue that due to adverse demographics, for each 100 workers who leave the labour market, only 63 enter it. At the same time the needs of the labour market grow as the GDP and industry grow, said BICA President Vassil Vassilev. He said that all sectors are severely understaffed and that the gross domestic product would have been 4 billion leva larger had it not been for the labour shortage.

By way of example of the need to scrap the restrictions on third-country workers, the employers said that Romania has an entire factory with Vietnamese workers.

The Podkrepa Labour Confederation lashed out at the proposal and said it paves the way to labour and social dumping and aims to keep down wages at a time when conditions are ripe for a pay raise.

The unions also slammed a proposal to remove a requirement for an employer seeking to hire more than 10 per cent of third-country workers, to discuss these plans with the social partners.

Podkrepa economic adviser Vanya Grigorova said that for long years employers have been pressuring the government into relaxing the rules for import of third-country workers to the detriment of Bulgarian workers. She also said that as of mid-January only 9,511 job vacancies are being advertised at the job centres and over 232,000 Bulgarians are out of job. "And before somebody accuses Bulgarian workers of being lazy, I want to remind you that when they go abroad, they work hard and fill other countries' coffers with taxes and pension insurance contributions," said Grigorova.

The meeting of the social partners considered revisions to the labour migration and labour mobility legislation proposed by the government in order to transpose the EU rules for entry and stay in the EU of third-country citizens for the purpose of scientific research, university study, internship, volunteering, academic exchange, educational projects or au pair programmes. The employer associations and the unions had no objections to the government's proposals.