In Bulgaria, employment contracts are essential legal documents that outline the relationship between employers and employees. One crucial aspect of these contracts is how they address the length of service. This article explores the treatment of length of service in both first and second employment contracts.
Length of Service and Compensation
Bulgarian employees receive an additional monthly allowance to their base salary based on their length of service. This allowance is typically calculated as a percentage of the base salary, with a minimum rate of 0.6% for each year of professional experience in a similar or identical position.
First Employment Contracts
- Mandatory Seniority Class: For a first employment contract, the seniority class, which determines the additional compensation for length of service, is mandatory.
Second Employment Contracts
- Limited Compensation: In cases of second employment contracts, employees are generally entitled to additional compensation only for the period that supplements their working hours up to 8 hours when their first employment contract is for part-time work.
- No Additional Compensation for Full-Time Hours: If an employee works 8 hours under their primary (first) employment contract and has a second employment contract, they are typically not entitled to additional seniority-based compensation under the second contract.
Examples
To illustrate these concepts, let’s consider the following scenarios:
- Example 1: An employee works 4 hours under a primary employment contract and 4 hours under a second employment contract. Both contracts would provide additional compensation for length of service.
- Example 2: An employee works 8 hours under a primary employment contract and 2 hours under a second employment contract. Only the primary employment contract would provide additional compensation for length of service.
- Example 3: An employee has a primary employment contract for 4 hours and a second employment contract for 8 hours with a different employer. The additional compensation for length of service under the second contract would be calculated based on the 4-hour salary, as it supplements the total monthly working hours to 8 hours.
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