site.btaEmployers Call for Facilitating Labour Immigration and Expanding Occupational Training

The Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA) on Monday called for relaxing labour import regulations and drawing up more occupational training programmes, including for employed persons, in order to address labour market problems in Bulgaria. The matter was discussed at a meeting between the employer organization's leadership and senior officials of the Employment Agency, including its Executive Director Polina Marinova, BICA reported.

BICA Management Board Chairman Vasil Velev said labour shortage is one of the two most serious problems confronting the Bulgarian business community. He noted: "It is our foremost task to work for easing labour immigration by drawing on the best European practices. For Bulgarian employers, there is nothing better than local workers, but regrettably, they are too few on the labour market. National Statistical Institute data show that unemployment is at its sanitary minimum of under 4%."

BICA said the programmes for training employed persons should be more flexible. The employers supported under such programmes should be approved only once and should be given funding for a whole year for the training of employed (including newly employed) persons according to the employers' needs, the organization said.

Marinova said more financial incentives will be brought together in 2023 under a single programme which employers can use to hire staff. Employers will be allowed to appoint mentors for training newly employed persons on subsidies from the Employment Agency.

Agency experts identified a few more possibilities they are working on to facilitate enterprises in employing staff. These include electronic signing and accounting for contracts and using training vouchers in an electronic system.

The sides discussed future amendments to primary and secondary legislation to promote employment and labour mobility, approve and launch a National Employment Action Plan in 2023. They looked at proposals by BICA member organizations concerning possible amendments to the Labour Migration and Mobility Act related to the access of citizens of non-EU countries to the Bulgarian labour market, dual education for adults, introducing and advertising more electronic services at the Employment Agency, measures to curb fraud committed by so-called "perpetually jobless persons", pooling efforts to examine staffing needs, and activating economically inactive persons, among other steps.