after the Law on the Measures and Actions during the State of Emergency

In view of the declared state of emergency in the Republic of Bulgaria, the legislature began work on a special law, regulating the social relations under emergency conditions. The law, titled as Law on the Measures and Actions during the State of Emergency, announced with a Parliament decision of 13.03.2020, was adopted on 23.03.2020. With this legal act certain provisions of the Labor Code were changed.

Please refer to our previous short presentation on the topic to see employers’ flexibility options before the adoption of the State of Emergency Law.

What exactly does this act change?

1. Work from home:

The Employer, for the duration of the state of emergency, can impose the so-called “home office” or remote work from home without the employees’ consent. Before that, an annex to the work contract, changing the work location, was formally required. The law is also aimed at settling a number of technical questions, related to the changed way of assigning and fulfilling work duties.

2. Compulsory days off:

According to Art.7, par.2 from the new Law, the Employer can provide up to half of the annual paid leave to the worker or employee without his/her consent. In the meantime, a new Art.173a to the Labor Code is introduced, according to which, when, due to a declared state of emergency, the work of the enterprise, a part of the enterprise or individual workers or employees is suspended by order from the Employer or a State Authority, the Employer has the right to provide the annual paid leave to the worker or employee even without his\her consent; that includes workers/employees with less than 8 months of work experience. A comparison between the two texts leads to the conclusion that for the duration of the specifically declared state of emergency until 13.04.2020, a unilateral provision of up to half of the annual paid leave decided by the Employer will be possible.

3. Work suspension:

A possibility for the Employer to suspend the work of the enterprise, a part of the enterprise or individual workers and employees in the conditions of a declared state of emergency for the whole period or a part of it is also envisaged. Thus, the currently existing risk for the Employer from claims of unlawful obstruction of performing work activity is avoided. It is important to note that, for the period of suspension, the workers or employees have the right to receive their remuneration.

4. Introduction of part-time work:

For the full period of the declared state of emergency or for a part of it, the Employer has the right to impose a part-time work schedule on the full time workers and employees. Respectively, in this hypothesis, if employees working 8-hour shifts switch to a 4-hour schedule, they would receive ½ of their gross payment.

5. Compulsory approval of paid or unpaid leave applications:

For the duration of the declared state of emergency, the Employer is obliged to authorize the use of paid or unpaid annual leave, when the application comes from the following categories of workers or employees:

• a pregnant female worker or employee, including a worker or employee in an advanced stage of in-vitro treatment;
• a mother or an adoptive mother of a child up to 12 years of age or a child with a medical disability, unrelated to his/her age;
• a worker or employee, who is a single father or adoptive father of a child up to 12 years of age or a child with a medical disability, unrelated to his/her age;
• a worker or employee under 18 years of age;
• a worker or employee with permanently reduced work capacity of 50 or higher than 50 percent;
• a worker or employee with the right of protection upon dismissal under Art. 333, par. 1, items 2 and 3.

6. Employer subsidy:

Within the period of action of the Law, but up to a maximum of 3 months, the NSSI (National Social Security Institute) will transfer 60% of the amount of the social security income for the insured individuals under Art.4, par.1, p.1. The funds will not be transferred to the employees but to the employers. The latter should meet the criteria set by the Council of Ministers. A limited number of employers were represented in the Decree draft – among the most affected (including the areas: retail, tourism, restaurant business, hotel industry, passenger transportation, others).

This review describes the current legislation’s basic principles and the expected (to the date of its publishing) amendments – dynamic under the emergency situation conditions. It is not related to the details of a particular situation, it does not represent a legal advice, and is subject to additions following further changes.

In case that you need a legal consultancy, related to a concluded contract and its implementation under the conditions of emergency situation, you can address att. Stanislav Nikolov, Head of Compliance and Regulations, e-mail s.nikolov@popovarnaudov.bg