Employers shall cover 70 percent of the first three days of employees’ sick leave, according to a provision adopted at first reading by the National Assembly

June 3, 2010

At its sitting held on June 3, 2010 the National Assembly adopted at first reading amendments to the Social Insurance Code providing that until December 31, 2010 employers shall cover the allowance for the first three days of employees’ sick leave at 70 percent of the average gross remuneration for the month within which the temporary work inability has occurred. Thus NSSI shall cover 80 percent of the sick leave allowance from the fourth day on. The amendment was initiated by the Council of Ministers. Debates on the text started yesterday and were carried on today. Both the opposition and the incumbents supported the proposal for removal of upper limit in unemployment compensations.

The M.P.s decided at first reading that paid annual leave for past years that has remained outstanding by January 1, 2010 can be used only until December 31, 2011. This provision is part of the amendments to the Labour Code proposed by the Council of Ministers. They are aimed to regulate the anti-crisis measures of the government. Two bills on Labour Code amendments moved by the Left were rejected by the M.P.s. They adopted an amendment envisaging the possibility to extend by another three months the term for introducing part time working schedule upon workload decrease. The acting Labour Code provides for only three months part time working schedule introduction by the employer.

The term of insurance practice for workers on part time shall be fully recognized irrespective of the working hours. This amendment shall be in force until the end of next year. Another amendment of anti-crisis character is the extension by another 45 calendar days the term within which, in case of need, the employer can temporarily either entrust the workers with another job or transfer them to another production facility. At present this term is 45 days. The amendment is interim and shall be in effect until the end of 2011.

Another anti-crisis measure adopted by the M.P.s provides the employers with the possibility to "allow" workers and employees " take a specific leave for economic reasons. Until December 2010, in case of decreased workload employers can let workers and employees go on unpaid leave without their consent . The term of unpaid leave is up to 60 workdays. The minimum sanction imposed by the employer for minor breaches is doubled. The lowest fine shall be BGN 100 while the maximum one is raised from BGN 100 to BGN 300.

The Parliament adopted the 2009 annual report of the State Commission on Information Security.

Three new members of the Communications Regulation Commission were elected by the National Assembly: Nikola Kolev, who was also approved as deputy chairman of the regulator, Konstantin Tilev and Irina Romanska.