ADDRESS FROM THE BULGARIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY TO THE PUBLIC AND POLITICAL PARTIES

The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) categorically opposes to the new criterion for representativeness of employers’ organizations proposed in the Draft Bill for Amendment and Supplement to the Labour Code, which sets the restriction for any organization applying for representativeness “not to be engaged in activities specifically assigned only to it by law or some enactment” (Art. 35, para 1, item 5 of the Labour Code). This provision is directed only against BCCI, which is the oldest employers’ organization in the country with 117 years of history.

The criterion is unacceptable, because:

• it is not justified in any way in the motives of the Draft Bill;

• it is unknown in the European and international practice and contrary to the circulated statement, no such requirement has been proposed by the European Commission;

• it does not take into account the membership of an employers’ organization in the International Organization of Employers by virtue of which it becomes internationally recognized as representative.

The proposed restrictive criterion excludes from national social partnership the largest employers’ organization, which is a recognized member of the International Organization of Employers and unites 28 regional chambers of commerce, over 100 sectorial organizations and more than 50 000 members. As a result, a vast majority of the active business entities in the country will remain underrepresented and without protection on national and regional level. Using a similar approach, the state might deprive of national representativeness any organization which has adopted public-private partnership.

BCCI categorically warns that failure to comply with the requirements for representativeness applied in the European practice might have undesirable consequences for Bulgaria before the forums of influential international organizations, such as the International Organization of Employers, the International Labour Organizations and Eurochambres, which have expressed their disapproval of the adoption of the proposed criterion.

29.11.2011