site.btaSocial Policy Minister: Support Mulled for All Employees Hiring Ukrainian Nationals

There are plans to provide financial support to all employers who hire Ukrainian nationals, Bulgarian Labour and Social Policy Minister Georgi Gyokov said at a meeting of the parliamentary Labour, Social and Demographic Policy Committee here on Wednesday.

Once approved by the Finance Ministry and the Council of Ministers, such employers will be subsidized by a scheme under Operational Programme Human Resource Development, he specified.

Gyokov recalled that employer organizations have announced 250,000 vacant jobs. Of the 248,085 Ukrainians who have entered Bulgaria, 104,067 have opted to stay here. "An option is being contemplated in which the government will pay minimum wage and social security contributions for three months and social security contributions only for the next three months," the Minister said. Other possible opportunities for support include financing babysitters, because a large part of the people who arrived from Ukraine are women with little children, and issuing vouchers for Bulgarian language courses to the Ukrainian nationals.

There are plans to provide psychological counselling, labour consulting, needs-based profiling of asylum seekers, facilitating children's integration, Bulgarian language training, subsidizing housing rent for up to three months, designation of mentors, hourly child care services, etc. Gyokov said that BGN 46.5 million will be allocated for this purpose.