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Download NowThere are four ways of terminating employment:
Any documents related to the termination of an employment contract by either party must be made in writing.
If the employer and employee agree to end the employment, it can be done at any time and be initiated by either party, irrespective of the type of contract and possible special duration protection. The party who has been approached with the offer shall be obligated to inform the other party on his/her opinion within seven days after receipt of the said offer. Upon failure to do so, rejection of the offer shall be presumed.
Bulgarian law provides one specific option for termination, which also requires an agreement to be reached between the employer and the employee:
A contract is terminated with notice when either the employer or employee notifies the other party that they intend to terminate the working relationship with notice. The employment contract is then terminated at the end of the notice period.
The employer can only terminate an employment contract if one of the specific, justified reasons set out in the Labour Code exists.
The most common reasons are:
In the event of termination, as per items 2 and 3 above, the employer has the right to select to retain in employment employees who possess higher qualifications and work better.
In the event of termination, as per items 2, 3, 5 and 7 above, some categories of employees can be dismissed only with advance permission from the labour inspection (like a female employee who is the mother of a child who has not attained the age of 3 years, an occupational-rehabilitee employee, an employee suffering from a disease designated in an ordinance of the Minister of Health etc.).
In the event of termination as per items 1, 2, 3, 4 and some other exhaustively listed cases, the employee shall be entitled to compensation from the employer to an amount based on the employee's gross salary for the period of unemployment after the termination but not more than 1 month.
Paying compensation in lieu of notice is allowed, and it is in the amount of the employee's gross salary for the unobserved notice period.
The employer can terminate the employment contract without notice if one of the specific, justified reasons set out in the Labour Code exists. The most common reasons are:
The employee can terminate the employment without notice if one of the specific, justified reasons in the Labour Code exists. The most common reasons are:
Once the employment is terminated, the employer must complete the employee’s workbook and deliver it to the employee. The termination of the employment is registered with the National Revenue Agency within seven days, and the period of insurance will be over as of the date of termination. The final payment is due in the next pay cycle, as normal, unless otherwise agreed between the parties.
Employees who consider that they have been dismissed unfairly or unlawfully can file an appeal with the competent court and request to be reinstated at work (while being compensated for the period of unemployment caused by the dismissal, but not more than six months).
Under Bulgarian law, selected employee categories are protected against their employment being terminated with notice, particularly the following:
The above protection applies only for the below cases of termination of employment:
Employees falling within one or more of the protected categories above can be dismissed only with advance permission from the labour inspection for each specific case.
Employees who want to resign must present the employer with a dated statement confirming their intention to leave in writing. Employees must respect the appropriate notice period in the employment contract. The notice becomes effective after expiry of the notice period. If the notice period is not observed, the employee owes the employer compensation in the amount of the employee's gross salary for the unobserved notice period.
Mass redundancy shall be dismissal effected on the employer's initiative for one or more reasons not related to the individual employee concerned, where the number of dismissals is:
Where an employer is planning mass redundancies, the employer is obligated to begin consultations with the trade union organisations' representatives and with the employees' representatives not later than 45 days before the mass redundancies are to take effect and to make efforts to reach an agreement with the said representatives to avoid mass redundancies or reduce the number of employees affected and to mitigate the consequences of the said redundancies.
Any employer must notify in writing the competent division of the National Employment Agency of any projected mass redundancies not later than 30 days before the redundancy date.
Upon receipt of the notification, teams must be formed, consisting of a representative of the employer, representatives of the employees' organizations at the company concerned, a representative of the competent division of the National Employment Agency, and a representative of the municipal administration.
The teams then have the task to draft the necessary measures aimed at:
Employees are entitled to the following severance payments:
The notice periods are:
During the notice period, the employee is entitled to receive a normal salary and is obliged to work as usual.
Employees for whom social insurance contributions have been paid or are due with the Unemployment Fund for at least 12 months during the last 18 months preceding the termination of employment are entitled to receive unemployment compensation if they:
The unemployment compensation is 60% of the average daily pay or the average daily contributory income on which insurance contributions to the Unemployment Fund have been paid or are due for the last 24 calendar months preceding the month in which the insurance was terminated and may not be less than the minimum daily amount and higher than the maximum daily amount of the unemployment benefit. The minimum daily compensation is BGN 18,00 (around EUR 9.20), and the maximum is BGN 85.71 (around EUR 43.79).
Unemployed persons whose employment was terminated at their initiative, with their consent or due to their faulty behaviour on legal grounds exhaustively listed in the law, shall receive the daily minimum as mentioned above for 4 months only.
Unemployed persons who have acquired entitlement to an unemployment benefit before the expiry of 3 years from a preceding enjoyment of the entitlement to an unemployment benefit will receive the minimum amount for 4 months only.
The period for which unemployment benefit is paid depends on the insurance contributions and length of service.
Length of Service | Duration of Benefit Payment |
---|---|
up to 3 years | 4 months |
from 3 years and 1 day to 7 years | 6 months |
from 7 years and 1 day to 11 years | 8 months |
from 11 years and 1 day to 15 years | 10 months |
over 15 years | 12 months |
The National Social Insurance Institute pays the unemployment benefit.
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