site.btaExpert: Bulgaria's Labour Market Has 500,000 Workers in Reserve

106 ECONOMY-LABOUR MARKET-ANALYSIS

Expert: Bulgaria's Labour Market
Has 500,000 Workers
in Reserve

Sofia, December 29 (Valeria Dimitrova and Ekaterina Toteva of BTA) - Bulgaria's labour market has a reserve of 500,000 workers, however employers want to import workers from third countries, says Ivan Neikov, head of the Balkan Institute for Labour and Social Policy in a BTA interview. These 500,000 workers include people with disabilities of a working age, those who are neither in education or employment and some 200,000 young retirees who are fit to work.

The expert argues that demands by the business to import workers from third countries will be a step in the wrong direction because the import of large groups even for the purposes of the labour market has serious disadvantages. Neikov believes that this could give rise to social and cultural problems and personal problems such finding accommodation and healthcare services designed specifically for them.

The import of workers is used to keep wages low but Neikov says that employers are unaware of the many additional expenses they are going to face.

Neikov says that in 2019 the labour legislation should be amended. The effective legislation has been drafted with big companies in mind and an analysis should point out which of the existing laws can be implemented by smaller companies. According to data of the National Revenue Agency Bulgaria has little over 300,000 operating companies and data of the National Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises shows that 90 per cent of them have fewer than nine employees. "If we want the microcompanies which are the backbone of the Bulgarian economy to operate in compliance with the law, then we should draft laws which can be implemented by them," urged Neikov.