Bulgaria reduces reporting requirements for health and safety at work

In a move that eliminates needless company paperwork, amendments to the Bulgarian Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) were passed on 5 December 2017, which releases employers from reporting obligations to labour control authorities if there are no changes concerning the circumstances of health and safety at work.

If there are changes, the HSWA obliges employers to submit an annual standard form declaration to the labour control authorities no later than 30 April of the following calendar year. This declaration contains information about the employer’s enterprise, personnel, health and work safety measures at the company, and workplace conditions with a special emphasis on anything that may place employee health and life at risk.

If there were no changes in the circumstances reflected in the declaration, employers did not have to submit another declaration. In the past, they were required, however, to notify the labour control authorities in writing of the lack of any change by using a standard notification form.

Under the current regime, if there are no changes in a company’s health and safety circumstances, it does not have to submit an annual declaration nor does it have to inform the labour control authorities in writing that there are no changes in the declared information.

In short, no declaration need to be submitted.

As a result, the administrative service of the General Labour Inspectorate Executive Agency for these notifications has been suspended. Any such notifications (after 1 January 2018) that have already been submitted will be used solely for information purposes.

Note that reporting obligations for companies that were incorporated and companies with health and safety changes taking place before 31 December of the previous year remain the same.

The above change is a part of a government programme for reducing the administrative burden on citizens and the business. However, ordinance No. 3 dated 23 February 2010 regarding the form, content, procedure, and means of submission and filing of a declaration under Art. 15, para. 1 of the HSWA has not yet been placed in compliance with the amended law.

For more information, please contact Iveta Manolova.