Ex. No. 538-00-538
MR IVAILLO CALFIN
DEPUTY MINISTER PRESIDENT
ON DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIAL POLICY
MINISTER OF LABOR AND SOCIAL POLICY
AND CHAIRMAN OF
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRILATERAL COOPERATION
SUBJECT: Draft law to amend and supplement the Law on State
employee
DEAR MR CALFIN,
The proposed amendments and additions to the Civil Servant Act are aimed at regulating collective bargaining and the right to effective strike action and the conditions for their conduct by civil servants.
According to the current legislation in Bulgaria, they do not have such rights. This appears to be in violation of the provisions of Convention No. 87 on trade union freedom and protection of the right to organize, Convention No. 98 on the right to organize and collective bargaining of the ILO and Article 6, Paragraph 4 of the European Social Charter (revised) of the Council of Europe. This circumstance was ascertained by the Control Bodies of the International Labor Organization and the Council of Europe.
Non-compliance with Article 6, Paragraph 4 of the Revised Charter by the Bulgarian legislation was attacked with a collective complaint No. 32 of 2005 of KNSB, KT "Support" and the European Confederation of Trade Unions against Bulgaria before the Council of Europe. The competent body - Committee for Social Rights of the Council of Europe considered the complaint on its merits and unanimously concluded with its decision of October 16, 2006:
that the general prohibition of the right to strike in the electricity, health and communications sectors (Article 16 (4) of the Law on the Settlement of Collective Labor Disputes) constitutes a violation of Article 6§4 of the Revised Charter;
that the limitation of the right to strike in the railway sector arising from Article 51 of the Labor Code goes beyond what is permitted in Article G and therefore constitutes a violation of Article 6§4 of the Revised Charter;
that allowing civil servants to engage only in symbolic actions, which the law defines as a strike, and prohibiting them from collectively withdrawing from their jobs (Article 47 of the Civil Servant Law) constitutes a violation of Article 6§4 of the Revised Charter.
In accordance with the above conclusion, the National Assembly adopted an amendment to the Law on the Settlement of Collective Labor Disputes (ZUKTS), which repealed the ban on collective bargaining and effective strike action in the railway sector, in the electricity sector, health care and the messages.
With its resolution of October 10, 2012, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has positively noted the changes made in the ZUKTS and has explicitly emphasized that it expects the Bulgarian legislation to be brought into line with the requirements of the Charter in full, i.e. abolition of the ban on effective strike action by civil servants.
In this sense, the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria considers that the draft law proposed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is in accordance with the international commitments of the Republic of Bulgaria in the social sphere. The petitioner's motives are valid.
We believe, however, that the systematic place for settling the right to strike of civil servants is not in the Law on Civil Servants, but in the Law on Settlement of Collective Labor Disputes.
Separately, the proposed texts need a new edition, and the envisaged procedures require precise regulation, for example, the participation of an arbitrator in the settlement of a dispute is foreseen (art. 47b, para. 3, para. 4 and para. 5 of the draft law), without specified by whom and in what order this arbitrator will be appointed, by what procedure will he conduct his arbitration, will he receive remuneration and if so - from whom, etc. These legislative gaps will lead to an ambiguous and even frivolous interpretation of the provisions, which instead the targeted regulation will create conditions for vicious practices and legal chaos.
With respect,
Eugene Ivanov
Ex. director
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