Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Bulgaria (Ratification: 1960)

1. The Committee in previous observations had requested information on practical efforts to eliminate discrimination on the basis of national extraction. It notes that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination shares the same concerns (United Nations document CERD/C/304/Add.29 of 23 April 1997). The Committee notes with interest the information in the Government's latest report on the functioning of the Programme for Literacy, Training and Employment and the programme "From social assistance to employment" developed by the National Employment Office, which are aimed at national minorities and currently being implemented in regions with large numbers of people of Turkish and Roma origin. Noting that, as of December 1996, 54 people in the Lom municipality and, in January 1997, 62 people in the Sliven municipality had entered the "literacy" module of the Programme for Literacy, Training and Employment, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the number of people that have successfully completed this module and have subsequently entered the "training and retraining" module. The Committee would also appreciate receiving information on the functioning of the "employment" module of the programme which foresees job creation, mainly in the areas of self-employment and part-time and short-term employment, once it becomes operational. The Committee notes that the programme "From social assistance to employment", which aims to enhance the qualifications of the Turkish and Roma minorities by offering them different programme components ("readiness for work", "seeking work" and "vocational training") widened its scope in 1996 and 1997 to include several more municipalities. Of the 2,345 unemployed included in the programme in 1996, 1,226 were subsequently employed and 267 obtained professional qualifications. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the programme and the results achieved.

2. The Committee also notes with interest the efforts undertaken by the Government to stimulate tobacco production and processing in order to create employment in those regions mainly populated by persons of Turkish origin, where these have been traditional occupations and where skills are thus available. It notes the credit scheme set up under the Professional Training and Unemployment Fund to allow unemployed persons to develop agricultural tobacco production or employers to hire unemployed persons for processing activities. The Committee also notes that, according to the Government, from April to December 1996, 8,443 people were assisted in finding jobs and that the total number of unemployed persons hired by employers under the programme amounted to 2,266 between August 1996 and February 1997. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the functioning of the programme and the number of people benefiting from it. Noting that all three programmes focus partly on creating part-time and short-term employment, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on their long-term employment strategies.

3. The Committee notes that the Government's reports are silent on several issues on which it asked to be kept informed and must therefore repeat parts of its previous observation which read as follows:

Discrimination on the basis of political opinion. The Committee notes with interest the repeal of section 9 of the Banking Act (No. 25 of 1992) and section 6 of the Act to amend the Pensions Act of 12 June 1992, which had, respectively, excluded persons connected with the former regime from participation in banks' boards or management and excluded employment in certain specified political bodies of the former regime from counting as pensionable service. These provisions had been declared discriminatory on the basis of political opinion by the Constitutional Court in two rulings delivered in 1992 (copies of which are supplied by the Government), and the Committee had requested the Government to inform it of their implementation. As the Committee had expressed an interest in being kept informed of any other laws restricting access to employment or affecting terms and conditions of employment due to affiliation or association with the former political regime, it would be grateful if the Government would verify the situation of scientists and professors removed from policy-making posts in recent years, and inform the Committee whether these involved any cases based on de-communization texts. Discrimination on the basis of national extraction or religion. The Committee had noted the various measures taken by the Government to improve the position of the Turkish minority, and had asked particularly for information on the impact of Council of Ministers Decrees Nos. 139 of July 1992 and 249 of December 1992, both of which aimed at applying the Act on Political and Civil Rehabilitation of Repressed Persons. The Committee thanks the Government for the copies of the Decrees supplied and repeats its request for details on the number of persons who have applied for compensation under them, and on the number of applications settled. In the same vein, the Committee noted that the Government's approach to the problem of compensating the Turkish minority which had been forced to flee the country, evidenced by Decree No. 170 of 30 August 1990 to restore real estate to those Turkish Bulgarians who had been forced to sell, had been challenged in a case presented to the Constitutional Court. Following that challenge, the Government reversed its approach and introduced Act No. 205/1992 on the Restitution of the Ownership of Real Estate to Bulgarian Citizens of Turkish Origin who Applied to Leave for the Republic of Turkey and Other Countries in the May-September 1989 Period, which envisaged restoring the property to the purchasers and leaving the seller returnees of Turkish origin only compensation. The Committee asked for information on the application of Act No. 205. From the copy of the Constitutional Court ruling (No. 18 of 14 December 1992) supplied by the Government, the Committee notes with interest that the Court rejected the claim of the current land owners that the opportunity offered to Turkish Bulgarians to recover title amounted to their unjust enrichment by reason of their ethnic origin. Stressing that the law aimed at remedying an injustice, the Court declared unconstitutional section 5 of Act No. 205/1992, which permitted returnees' claims to be inadequately compensated. Noting that Decree No. 170 remains in force and that it provides for six months' compensation to those returning workers who had been dismissed from their employment and who are registered as unemployed but not receiving other benefits, the Committee asks the Government for information on the number of returnees who have been able to benefit from this compensation.

4. The Committee is addressing a request directly to the Government on other points.