The Bulgarian President has vetoed the amendments to the Labor Code, which state that annual paid vacation leaves could be taken only during the respective year.

According to the amendments, passed by the Bulgarian Parliament on June 23, in the beginning of each year, the employer must create and approve a schedule for the use of paid leave making sure all workers have the opportunity to take a vacation within the same year, which will otherwise be lost.

“The restriction is in conflict with the Constitution and with international contracts, which involve Bulgaria,” President Georgi Parvanov said.

According to him, the restriction deprives the workers and employees from their right to physically have a vacation or its substitutionary monetary compensation when terminating an employment.

“Besides, in this way, the consequences of the crisis are unreasonably being put on the shoulders of the people who are most challenged economically – the workers and the regular state employees. They have worked, but are being deprived from their unused annual leave or its monetary compensation,” Parvanov said.

He added that the impossibility of using paid leaves, gained by 2010, after December 31, 2011 or the lack of their compensation is an unacceptable deprivation of people's acquired rights.

“This is in conflict with the text of the Constitution which forbids depriving people of their rights, and being allowed to have a paid leave is their right. We are not in a war, or in any other emergency situation, in which this text envisions temporarily restriction of these rights,” Parvanov said.

The President expressed his concern that with the approving of the amendment to the Labor Code, there will be changes in the settlement of the fundamental labor rights, and depriving the eligible from their paid leaves will have a negative effect on them.

At the same time, Parvanov noted that, in general, ideas for amendments should be supported because they give more opportunities to the employers to keep and effectively use the workforce.