The ELA is proud to welcome our newest member firms: Osborn Maledon in Arizona, Miles & Stockbridge in Maryland, and Woods Rogers in Virginia!
The ELA is proud to welcome our newest member firms: Osborn Maledon in Arizona, Miles & Stockbridge in Maryland, and Woods Rogers in Virginia!

Global Employer Handbook®

The Global Employer Handbook is a comprehensive resource for labor and employment law in over 100 countries, including 170+ jurisdictions around the globe. Filter the employment law information by using the drop-down menus. Submit your search to discover the labor law information you requested.

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Bulgaria

Introduction

The Republic of Bulgaria is a country in South-eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. The capital and largest city is Sofia.

Bulgaria became an EU Member State on January 1, 2007. Consequently, the EU regulations (including those in the field ...

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Hiring

A.  Basics of Entering an Employment Relationship

Under Bulgarian labour law, the individual employment relationship commences with concluding a written employment contract with minimum required contents (such as parties’ identification, place of work, job position and description, basic and additional monthly remunerations, etc. ...

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Compensation

A.  Minimum Wage

The minimum monthly wage for the country as of January 2024 is BGN 933 and the minimum hourly rate is BGN 5.58. These minimum rates apply to everyone irrespective of their age, industry and experience. The government regulates the minimum wage annually.

In addition, depending on the industry and the occupied position, the law ...

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Time Off/Leaves of Absence

A.  Paid Time Off

  • Sick Leave Pay

For the first three working days of absence, the employer pays the employee 70% of their average daily gross wage. The National Social Security Institute pays for the remaining time of sick leave prescribed under the respective sickness medical certificate (indemnity payments). ...

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Discrimination and Harassment

A.  Discrimination

The Protection from Discrimination Act (PADA):

  • prohibits all forms of discrimination, and defines direct and indirect discrimination;
  • regulates the prevention of discrimination;
  • introduces sanctions for discrimination related violations.

The PADA sets up a specialized state body, the Commission ...

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Termination/Dismissal Issues

A. Overview

  • Notice periods

Notice periods depend on the type of contract:

  • Indefinite term contract – mandatory minimum of 30-day termination notice period applies, unless otherwise agreed by the parties, but in all cases, it cannot exceed three months. Notice period must be equal for both parties.
  • Fixed-term contract ...

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Layoffs/Work Force Reductions/Redundancies/Collective Dismissals

​​​​​​A.  Overview

Redundancy/layoff is defined as a decrease or closure of separate units of the approved total number of employees at the enterprise where the respective labour function is effectively removed.

The employer can carry out redundancies in cases of:

  • closure of enterprise or a part of it;
  • reduction of staff;
  • ...

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Unfair Competition/Covenants Not to Compete

A.  Restriction of activities

An employee can enter into another employment relationship during the course of employment, unless the employment contract provides otherwise.

Post-employment restrictive covenants

Restrictions imposed on an employee's future employment are generally invalid and unenforceable.

B.  ...

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Personnel Administration

A.  Payroll Requirements

  • Method of Payment 

(Ref. Section II-B above)

  • Payment Frequency

The employment remuneration is to be agreed and paid on a monthly basis where advance payment and final payment might be done. The Employer and the employee may agree shorter period of payment – for example – weekly ...

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Privacy

Employees' data protection rights

Employees’ personal data can only be collected and processed after the employer, acting as data controller, provides full information about the processing to the individuals concerned.

This information should comply with all requirements of the Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and ...

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Employee Injuries and Workers Compensation

A.  Work Related Injuries

Two types of work-related injuries are recognized by Bulgarian law: accident at work and occupational disease.

  • Accident at work is any sudden damage to health which occurred during work or is related to performed work. This also includes any work performed in the interest of employer’s enterprise (no matter ...

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Unemployment Compensation

A.    Eligibility

The right to unemployment compensation payable by the state have employees with social security insurance at the Unemployment Fund for a period of at least 12 months in the last 18 months prior to termination of the insurance and who:

  • are registered as unemployed person, and
  • do not have acquired the right to ...

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Health and Safety

​​​​​​A.  Overview

Employers are statutorily required to procure health and safety conditions at work. Their main obligations in this regard are:

  • mandatory preliminary health check (in most cases at the employee's expense) before commencement of the employment;
  • adopting and complying with internal health and safety ...

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Trade Unions – Industrial Relations

A.    Overview

The trade union of employees is a non-profit legal entity. It is an independent, non-political organization whose main purpose is to defend the employment and social security rights of citizens.

  • Their most important functions as defined in the Labour Code, and specified in their statutes are outlined below.
  • ...

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Immigration/Labor Migration

A.    Overview Business Immigration Policy

The Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Act maintains the general procedure applicable to foreign nationals (that is, citizens from countries outside the EU, European Economic Area and Swiss Confederation) who want to work in Bulgaria. The Act also sets out a number of exceptions, which ...

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Additional Information

Contact

for more information about labour and employment law in Bulgaria, please contact: 

Law Firm Name:  Dinova Rusev & Partners Law Office                 

Address:               17 Vasil ...

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