site.bta Parliament Scraps Bridge Holidays by Amending Labour Code on First Reading

Parliament Scraps Bridge Holidays by Amending Labour Code on First Reading

Sofia, December 8 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Parliament Thursday voted, 80-5 with 5 abstentions, to pass Government-proposed amendments to the Labour Code under which, when a public holiday (with the exception of the Orthodox Easter) falls on a Saturday and/or a Sunday, the first one or two days thereafter will be non-working.

In this way, long weekends will no longer have to be declared annually, with compensation in the form of working on a Saturday of a different weekend. This practice is having ambivalent or rather adverse effects, its opponents argue. In its reasons for the bill, the Council of Ministers says that by fixing an equal number of working days for each year, the working process will become predictable and secure.

Employers resent the new arrangements because they create conditions for extra days off, National Assembly Labour, Social and Demographi Policy Committee Chairman Hasan Ademov said.

The change will probably be defeated on second reading, it emerged from statements by MPs of various parliamentary groups.

Dimiter Bairaktarov MP of the Patriotic Front pointed out that the revisions are expected to help GDP growth next year, but in purely practical terms the problem is not solved but is aggravated.

The present number of non-working days during the year should by no means be reduced, according to Yanaki Stoilov MP of BSP-Left Bulgaria.

"We need a brand new law, this Labour Code has been patched up for 30 years now, and I don't see a reason why the bill should be seconded," said Radan Kanev MP of the Reformist Bloc.

Other amendments voted through on Thursday make it possible to draw up documents related to the employment relationship in an electronic form, which will help cut the costs of their preparation, processing and storage.

The National Assembly also passed on first reading another Cabinet-sponsored bill to amend the Labour Code, laying down a separate legal framework for posting workers in the framework of the provision of services.