As of 30 December 2016, the Bulgarian legislator gave force to the Posting of Workers Directive 2014/67/EU with amendments to the Bulgarian Labour Code. The changes, which relate to the basic employment and working conditions for posted and temporary agency workers, can be summarised as follows:
• Improvement of the process for implementing and enforcing the stronger protections for posted workers and preventing their abuse;
• Refinement of the provisions of the Labour Code regarding the provision of services by posted workers;
• Separation of the legal provisions on (i) posting workers and (ii) sending workers by temporary agency, in order to bring clarity and legal certainty to the implementation of both procedures;
• Establishment of the procedures for posting workers and sending workers by temporary agency from Bulgaria to other EU Member States, EEA countries and the Swiss Confederation, as well posting workers and sending workers by cross-border temporary agency from these states to Bulgaria;
• Requirement for the parties to employment agreements for posting or sending workers to satisfy the minimum job terms and employment conditions which are established for workers exercising the same or identical job in the host country;
• Creation of provisions allowing workers, posted or sent to Bulgaria, to bring an action against their employer in Bulgaria in cases where the minimal work conditions were not observed;
• Administrative coordination between the General Labour Inspectorate Executive Agency and the competent authorities of other countries through an informational system of the internal market;
• Establishment of the General Labour Inspectorate Executive Agency as the body responsible for the supervision and collection of fines imposed for violations of laws related to the posting of workers and sending of workers by temporary agency.
However, the new national posting provisions do not determine which state (the home or the host state) will tax labour income. Taxation of posted workers is still subject to bilateral tax agreements which stipulate the general principle that income tax is paid in the country where the income is earned when the worker works for more than 183 days within a period of 12 months in the host state.
Posting of Workers Directive 2014/67/EU transposed into Bulgarian legislation
Authors:
DMD
Dr. Maria Drenska
ARTICLE23 January 2017