The Bulgarian Industrial Association is calling for a public debate on amendments to the Code of Labour. Employers are demanding the lifting of the strict ban on overtime work, an increase in the maximum number of overtime hours within the space of one year from 150 to 300, the lowering of the minimum age for admission to employment from 16 to 15, and the lifting of the restrictions by force of which the number of employees on contracts on an hourly and part-time basis cannot exceed 30 percent of the staff.

The business sector says that Bulgaria is close to the bottom of the list of EU countries by all indicators like flexibility of labour, fixed-term employment contracts, the fact there is no temporary employment agency, part-time employment, teleworking, second employment contract etc. The Bulgarian Industrial Association says that the legislation now in place is outdated, hyper-exacting, contradictory and inadequate in light of the challenges of the times.

The people who advocate changes cite, as a positive example, the labour reforms in Germany in 2016 and in Spain in 2011 which created new jobs. Yet these are countries with effective trade unions, collective bargaining that works, and guaranteed adequate pay even for part-time work. Alas, trade unions in Bulgaria do not carry that kind of weight by far.

Labour reforms, very similar to the ones proposed in Bulgaria, are highly controversial in countries like Greece and France. To attract investments and safeguard jobs in France, President Emmanuel Macron eliminated the 35-hour working week limit, pushing it up to 40 hours a week, and incurred the wrath of the public. The changes made in the legislation of Hungary at the end of 2018 were not all that different – employers in Hungary can demand of their staff up to 400 extra hours of overtime in a year and delay payment for the overtime work for up to three years. This means overtime work can go up by 8 hours a week, with staff having to work a 6-day week. The trade unions in the country called the amendments “slave law”.

It looks like the employers in Bulgaria and in Eastern Europe do not see eye to eye with the experts at the latest World Economic Forum in Davos, where there were calls for a transition to a 4-day working week. To many this may sound utopian, though in the years of totalitarianism, a 5-day working week seemed no less a fantasy. Because new technologies are where the answers to any doubts will come from, new technologies are also the key to improving productivity. The labour-intensive industry is relying more and more on robotisation. Does anyone think one horse power of 0.75 kWh can compete with a 75 kWh engine? That is exactly the same kind of chance a human – one “human power” - stands of competing with assembly line robots. Instead of investing in robotisation and new technologies, the business sector in Bulgaria is hoping to squeeze added value out of different forms of flexibleemployment. An illusion the market has a habit of curing, and quickly. Longer working hours are effective only temporarily. In the long-term they are counter-ergonomic. Machine manufacture has always got the better of the allure of overtime work. Keeping a machine in good repair in industry and the services has always, and will come cheaper than caring for a staff of humans.

Not that flexible working hours are a bad thing, or keeping several jobs at a time, or working from home, or getting paid by the hour. The question is – are Bulgarian employers, and the state administration ready for the changes the Bulgarian Industrial Association is advocating?

English version: Milena Daynova