Bulgaria is to restrict to a minimum the issuing of work permits to foreigners, Social Minister, Totyu Mladenov, declared Tuesday.

The proposal is to be officially approved by the National Council for Employment Encouragement, along with other amendments of the Decree for Issuing, Denial, and Revocation of Work Permits for Foreigners in Bulgaria.

Mladenov explained the measure was made necessary by the increase of unemployment levees in Bulgaria.

Currently the country has registered over 1,100 work permits for foreigners.

One of the amendments provides for the extension of the market test - the period during which the employer is mandated to seek Bulgarian citizens for the job - from 15 to 30 days. A labor negotiator is to take part in each hiring process to verify that there isn't any discrimination against Bulgarians.

The second amendment mandates that sectors with increased levels of unemployment should not allow foreigners to take jobs, while the third one will ban employers, who had notified about mass dismissals, to hire foreign citizens for a period of 6 months.

A recent checkup of the Main Labor Inspectorate and the Employment Agency had revealed that Bulgarians are discriminated against in favor of foreigners. For example, the Turkish "MAPA-CENGIZ" company, working on the Lyulin highway, which employs 310 Bulgarian and 367 Turkish workers pays Turkish workers EUR 4,5 an hour while Bulgarians make two times less, according to the Social Minister.