With the signatures of 51 Members of the Parliament from the two main opposition parties in Bulgaria, the new rules for the mandatory use of paid leave by employees went Monday to the Constitutional Court.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the ethnic Turkish party, Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) oppose the rules as anti-constitutional. Meanwhile the press office of President, Georgi Parvanov, also informed that the Head of State had signed a request to the same court to rule if the new paid leave use mandate is in contradiction with international contracts and EU directives.

The mandate that all paid leave, accumulated by the 2009, is used by employees in the country by the end of 2011, otherwise it would expire, was published in the State gazette Friday and is effective beginning Monday.

BSP declared they will attack the new rules in court even before Parvanov imposed a veto on them.

On July 22, the Members of the Parliament from the ruling center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party, from the far-right, nationalist Ataka party, the right-wing Blue Coalition, and 1 independent MP rejected the July 5 veto of the President.

All along Parvanov hinted he will take the case to the Constitutional Court of the veto is rejected.

The new rules were imposed after it became known that the state owes huge compensations to employees facing layoffs over unused paid leave for as long as eight years, while the new Director of the National Social Security Institute, Hristina Mitreva, had received BGN 30 000 in such compensations after leaving NOI to become Deputy Minister and then returning back to the Institute as its Director.