site.btaNational Council for Tripartite Cooperation Discusses Amendments to Labour Code

At a meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC) that took place here on Monday, the social partners discussed proposed amendments to the Labour Code.

Minister of Labour and Social Policy Borislav Gutsanov warned that if proposed amendments to the Labour Code fail to be adapted by the end of the year, Bulgaria risks being fined by Brussels EUR 2 million plus another daily fine of EUR 15,000, until the Code gets amended.

The Minister specified that the main objective of the draft law is to improve the legal framework in the field of collective bargaining.

One bill that had been tabled by Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria MP Yordan Ivanov and a group of MPs proposed the abolition of non-working Mondays when a public holiday falls on a day off.

The bill saw support from the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, whose representative Dobrin Ivanov said that the main problem for businesses in the country is the shortage of labour.

Maria Mincheva of the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) said that the matter should be examined more broadly and, until that is done, BIA would refrain from supporting the proposal.

The organizations that argued against the bill were the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), and the Podkrepa Labour Confederation. Their criticisms varied from calling the bill ineffective to saying that it has the potential to diminish the levels of predictability and certainty in the management of the labour process.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy also refused to support the bill, with Minister Borislav Gutsanov saying that no inquiries or complaints have been received as a result of the current process.

After the meeting, the CITUB and the Podkrepa Labour Confederation opposed the Labour Ministry’s draft amendments to the Labour Code aimed at promoting collective bargaining. According to CITUB Vice President Todor Kapitanov, the proposals leave working people without any encouragement for collective wage bargaining. Podkrepa secretary Valeri Apostolov told reporters: "We did not find any binding element linking it to the directive concerning the establishment of a mechanism for adequate minimum wages."