Bulgaria's tripartite council failed to agree on a bill by Kostadin Kostadinov and a group of MPs that would create a new public holiday and extend payments to unlawfully dismissed workers. Trade unions oppose the holiday, the Podkrepa union wants the payments to have no time limit, and employers and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy reject both ideas.
The bill amends the Social Insurance Code. Its authors want a "National Reconciliation Day" to become a public holiday and want to scrap the six-month cap on compensation for unlawful dismissal. Under the proposal, a worker would get compensation for as long as the court case lasts in which they try to prove they were dismissed unlawfully. Until now, compensation was paid for up to four months.
The bill has already passed its first reading in parliament's social committee. Labour and social policy minister Natalia Efremova said the committee rejected the holiday part by a majority vote.
The ministry also opposes the holiday, because it would bring extra costs for the public and private sectors. On compensation, Efremova said the Civil Procedure Code sets fairly short deadlines for a court to rule in a dismissal dispute. The employer pays compensation for the same period, she said, and it is not a punishment for the employer.
"For now we see no reason to change the time limit, and we believe the current text is enough," Efremova said.
Asya Goneva of the CITUB trade union confederation opposes the holiday. She said public holidays are set by the National Assembly, not by the Labour Code. Any such proposal, she said, needs careful thought about what it aims to do, whose interests it affects in the public and private sectors, and what effect it is meant to have. The length of the compensation should be reasonable, Goneva added.
Valeri Apostolov of Podkrepa also opposes the holiday, because national and public holidays are set by the National Assembly.
"On scrapping the time limit on compensation for unlawful dismissal, we think it should be adopted," Apostolov said.
All four employers' organisations oppose both ideas: the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Industrial Association, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria. They say there is no reason for another public holiday, or for compensation with no fixed end.