On 28.07.2022 Parliament voted on the second reading and adopted upcoming changes to the Labor Code. The changes were promulgated in the State newspaper, no. 62 of 05.08.2022 and enter into force from 01.08.2022.
The new texts aim at the transposition into Bulgarian legislation of Directive (EU) 2019/1152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on transparent Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and careers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU (ОВ, L 188, 12 July 2019 г.). In this connection, several sets of changes have been adopted.
The first group of changes introduces additional requirements for transparency and predictability of conditions in employment contracts, such as:
- The employer will be obliged, upon any amendment to the employment relationship, to provide the worker/employee with written information that contains the data on the changes made, at the latest until the amendment enters into force, and not as it is currently “at the earliest opportunity or no later than one month from the entry into force of the changes made”.
- In the case of fixed-term employment contracts with a term of up to 1 year, the trial period is also changed, and after the changes it can be up to 1 month;
- A change is also foreseen when the worker/employee enters into an employment contract with another employer, outside of the working hours established for him under the main employment relationship. The Worker/Employee may enter into an employment contract with another employer, unless a prohibition is stipulated in his employment contract under the main employment relationship, due to the protection of trade secrets and/or prevention of conflict of interest;
- With the upcoming changes, the employer will be obliged to familiarize the worker/employee not only with the rules for the internal employment regulation, the regulation for health and safety at work, but also with the internal regulation for remuneration. For greater transparency, the employer will be obliged to provide the worker/employee with information about the terms and conditions for terminating the employment contract according to the provisions of the Labor Code, as well as information about the training provided by the employer in order to maintain and increase professional qualifications and improve professional skills.
- A Worker/Employee, whose trial period has expired and works on a fixed-term employment contract and/or part-time, will have the right to offer the employer a change in the employment relationship in writing. The Worker/Employee can propose that his employment contract to be changed from fixed-term to indefinite and/or from part-time to full-time. In case of refusal, the employer will be obliged to submit a motivated written response to the worker/employee within one month.
- In order for the father/adoptive father to use leave in the amount of 2 months for raising a child up to the age of 8, he must not have used any of the other leaves granted to him by law (under Art. 163, para. 10 – pregnancy and birth instead of the mother for the remainder up to 410 days; Art.164, para. 3 – raising a child up to the age of 2; Article 164b, paragraph 2 and paragraph 5 – in the case of adoption of a child up to the age of 5; Art. 167, para. 1 – in case of serious illness or death of the mother/adoptive mother). In case he used any of the listed leaves for a period shorter than 2 months, the father/adoptive father can use leave to raise a child up to 8 years of age for the difference between 2 months and the period of the used other type of leave.