Bulgaria: Recruitment and selection

Original and updating authors: Kalina Tchakarova and Youliana Naoumova, DGKV

See the legal services provided by the author of International > Bulgaria, including any discounts/offers for subscribers.

Summary

• Employers are prohibited from discriminating in recruitment and selection on various grounds, including sex, race, nationality, religion or faith, disability, age, sexual orientation and family status. (See Discrimination)
• Employers must not, when advertising a vacancy, set requirements linked to the statutory prohibited grounds of discrimination. (See Advertising vacancies)
• Statutory rules govern matters such as discrimination in selection, criminal-record checks and the documents that employers may require from job applicants. (See Selection)
• There is no explicit statutory regulation of job offers, the contents of such offers, or how they should be communicated to applicants. (See Job offers)
• There are public financial incentives for employers to hire certain categories of people, such as individuals under the age of 29 and various groups of unemployed people. (See Employment incentives)
• The employment of under-16s is prohibited, with some exceptions (for example, 15-year-olds may be employed in certain light work), while the employment of young people aged 16 or 17 is subject to various restrictions. (See Young people and children)
• People who are not nationals of the European Economic Area countries or Switzerland generally require a work permit for employment in Bulgaria. (See Foreign nationals)
• On recruiting an employee, an employer must notify the National Revenue Agency and enter the details of the employment in the employee's official "work book". (See Formalities)