The presented budgets are poverty budgets. The minimum wage has no budget, and the government systematically violates the law, the categories are from CT "Podkrepa". The position of the confederation regarding the budget and the financial framework of the state was made public to the media. It expresses categorical disagreement with any attempts to determine the minimum wage through the Law on the Budget of the Public Service and insists on compliance with Art. 244 of the CT and the established and approved mechanism of the tripartite dialogue. If there are texts in the draft Law on the Budget of the Public Service that contradict the Labor Code, we will refer the matter to the Ombudsman, the people's representatives and will insist on referring the matter to the Constitutional Court for establishment unconstitutionality.
The conclusions drawn by the experts are as follows:
1. The Law on the Budget of the State Educational Service has temporary effect and cannot amend or derogate from the norms of the Labor Code, unless this is explicitly adopted by the National Assembly.
2. The Council of Ministers is obliged by 01.09.2025 to determine the minimum wage, in accordance with Art. 244, para. 2 of the Labor Code. As of today, 29.10.2025, the Council of Ministers has violated the provision of the Labor Code and has not adopted a Council Decree to determine the amount of the minimum wage. For 2026, there will be no minimum wage. The effects are:
All remunerations tied to the minimum wage will be paralyzed; The basis is missing for social payments; Blocking of the current CTA in terms of remunerations tied to the minimum wage; Inability to calculate personnel costs in the absence of a minimum wage amount; The minimum insurance income, which is 30 leva lower than the calculated minimum wage according to the Labor Code, will lead to additional losses in the budgets of the National Social Insurance Fund and the National Health Insurance Fund.3. The attempt to fix a different minimum wage in the Law on the Budget of the Social Insurance Fund, when a legal mechanism for its determination has been created, would be in contradiction with the Constitution, the Labor Code and international labor standards.
4. Such a practice undermines the principle of social dialogue and constitutes an excess of competence by the executive branch.
Regarding the legal framework, the confederation states the following:
According to Art. 244 of the Labor Code, the Council of Ministers determines the minimum wage for the country, upon proposal of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy, after consultations with the representative organizations of workers and employees and employers. This norm regulates the competence, procedure and principles of social dialogue in determining the minimum wage.
The determination of the minimum wage is an act of state policy in the field of labor relations and social protection, and not a fiscal measure. The minimum wage is not a budgetary indicator, but a socio-economic standard that guarantees a minimum level of income for labor in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria (Art. 48, para. 5).