Created on 14.11.2024

If you are a person with a disability who works or wants to work, or you are an employer who wants to employ a person with a disability, there are certain legal rules you need to be aware of. In this article we will look at some of these rules.

Protection for people with disabilities at work

In order to have such protection at work, your disability must have been established by a decision of the Territorial Expert Medical Committee (in Bulgarian - TELK), which determines what percentage of your disability is (you can read how to get such a TELK decision here). This TELK decision also determines how much your disability allows you to work and whether you can work. If you can work, it must be under conditions that are suitable for you and do not harm your health. 

Vocational rehabilitation

Once your disability has been established, you can start work in another position in your workplace or stay in the same position but work under less harmful conditions. This change is called vocational rehabilitation. You are not obliged to accept this change if you do not want to. 

Here are the steps to get a job accommodation:

Step 1 - Prescription for vocational rehabilitation

Firstly, you must be issued with a prescription for vocational rehabilitation by your general practitioner (GP), a medical advisory committee (in Bulgarian - LKK), a Territorial Medical Expert Committee (in Bulgarian - TELK) or a National Expert Medical Committee (in Bulgarian - NELK). 

Your GP and the LKK can only give prescription for temporary vocational rehabilitation at your work:

  • Your GP for up to 1 month;
  • The LKK for up to 6 months, after which you will have a follow-up examination and the period may be extended for up to 2 years;

If you need permanent or longer vocational rehabilitation, you should turn to TELK or NELK. They will give you such a prescription if you have a 50% or more permanent disability or if they consider that you have a medical contraindication to your work. 

Important! The employer's representative(s) must be involved when a decision is made to issue a temporary vocational rehabilitation prescription. 

If you are working and TELK (NELK) has found you to have a permanently reduced working capacity of 50% or more, the expert decision is sent to your employer and to the territorial branch of the National Social Insurance Institute (NSII).

Step 2 - Employer's obligations

Once you have a prescription for vocational rehabilitation, your employer has one of these two options:

  • They can move you to a new position that is suitable for you; or
  • Create more lenient working conditions for the position you already hold. 

Your employer must offer you one of these options. You may accept or reject the offer. If you accept, an additional agreement to your employment contract is signed.

If you and your employer cannot agree on the appropriate work or working conditions, the dispute can be reviewed by the health authority that issued the prescription.

The employer is obliged to move you to a suitable position within 7 days of receiving the vocational rehabilitation prescription. 

Important! After such vocational rehabilitation you can’t work at your previous position! You may only return to your previous job, if your disability was temporary and you subsequently recover.

You are entitled to compensation for the difference in the two wages if at your former job, before your disability was established:

  • you received a higher salary; and
  • your disability is less than 50%. 

Important! If your employer refuses to comply with the vocational rehabilitation prescription, they owe you your wages from the day the prescription was issued by the health authorities until it is complied with.

Prohibition of night and overtime work

When you are employed, in order to protect your health, you are prohibited from performing night and overtime work. This prohibition can be overcome if:

1) you give your consent (preferably in writing with a signature) and

2) this work does not harm your health.

Leave

If you have an established disability of 50% or more, your paid annual leave is at least 26 workdays.

Quitting and Dismissal

If you cannot do the job you have been given, you can end your employment without notice.

If you are dismissed for: 

  • Downsizing;
  • Reduction in workload;
  • If you do not have the necessary qualities to perform the job effectively;
  • If the job description changed and you no longer meet the requirements;
  • Disciplinary dismissal.

Bulgarian law gives you special protection as a person with a disability. In these cases your employer must obtain prior permission from the Labour Inspectorate to dismiss you. 

Obligations of employers

  1. In certain cases, as an employer, you are obliged to have certain open job positions for the employment of people with disabilities.

For example, if you have more than 50 workers, you must provide that 4 to 10% of the total number of positions each year are suitable for employment of disabled persons.

  1. Under certain conditions, you are required by law to hire a certain number of persons with disabilities:

If you are:

  • An employer with 50 to 99 workers, you are required to hire at least one person with a permanent disability for employment;
  • An employer with 100 or more workers, you are required to hire persons with disabilities equal to 2% of your average workforce.

You are exempt from this obligation until the end of the calendar year if your company's field of work  does not allow a suitable environment for people with permanent disabilities (for example, very heavy physical labour is required or strong chemicals are used), or no people with permanent disabilities were referred to you by the Labour Bureau. 

  1. As an employer, you are obliged to move the worker to a suitable position within 7 days of receiving the worker's vocational rehabilitation prescription issued by the authorities. 

If you do not comply with this instruction, you owe the worker compensation equal to his gross wages, as also stated above.

Financial support from the Agency for People with Disabilities for employers

When employing people with a permanent disability as an employer, you can apply to the Disability Living Allowance Agency for financial assistance to:

  • Receive funding to provide access at the workplace for a persons with permanent disabilities and to adapt the workplace for people with permanent disabilities
  • workplace equipment for people with permanent disabilities; 
  • training and retraining and other activities that would benefit the work of the people with permanent disabilities. 

Each year, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities publishes information on its website by 31 March about the programme under which employers can apply for financial support. Here you can see the application methodology, i.e. what are the criteria for the activities for which you can claim funding, what are the criteria for employers and the documents needed. On the website of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities you can find samples of all necessary document related to this financial assistance. 

If you receive this funding, you must employ people with permanent disabilities for at least 3 years. 

If you do not use the financial assistance for its intended purpose or do not employ people with permanent disabilities, you must return the money you received, together with statutory interest. 

Tax relief

Individuals whose disability is 50% or more are entitled to tax relief. For example, the monthly taxable basic earnings under an employment contract of the disabled person are reduced by BGN 660.

Additionally, the annual tax base of the person with a disability of 50% or more is reduced by BGN 7920. This refers to income of any nature that you have received during the year, not just under an employment contract (e.g. rental income, civil contracts etc.). You apply for this tax relief by completing your annual tax return, a template of which can be found on the National Revenue Agency website.

Taxes in Bulgaria

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Taxes in Bulgaria