Bulgarian economy ministry proposes scrapping special long weekends and ‘working’ Saturdays

Bulgaria’s Ministry of Labour and Social Policy is drafting changes to the Labour Code that would see the scrapping of the system that enables the government to declare special long weekends with Saturdays as “working days” in compensation.

Currently, the system in Bulgaria is that if, say, a Thursday is an official fixed public holiday, the Cabinet can declare a special public holiday on the Friday, creating a four-day weekend. In turn, the Cabinet proclaims a Saturday a working day to make up for the holiday.

Recently, this happened twice in September 2016 – there were two four-day weekends and two Saturdays that were “working days”.

In practice, however, the system is largely fictitious; largely only those on the public payroll go to the office on the Saturday “working day” while many private sector firms ignore it. The system is especially inconvenient for businesses serving head offices, partners and clients abroad, where no such special long weekend is in force.

Bulgarian private sector organisations repeatedly have complained that the system adds up to nothing more than lost productivity.

(Photo: Vicky Johnson/freeimages.com)

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/Business

 

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