The idea of the 4-day work week was commented on the air of BNT by Hristina Hristova, former Minister of Finance, and Vasil Velev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Association of Banks and Credit Institutions. „Practical attempts have been made for a long time, but this practice has never been implemented in any country”, stressed Hristova, quoted by novini.bg.
Velev said: „It turned out that it is not effective to work and train online. The message is initially wrong. The correct thing is: the 5-century coupon for Europe is over, if you want to live like now, you have to work more.”
According to Hristova, the newest generation on the labor market - generation Z, prefers to work remotely or hybrid, with flexible or, if possible, reduced working hours.
When asked about the minimum wage (MW) and whether the distortions that economists worried about, that the MW would approach the average in some regions, are real, Hristova specified: “We have been in a state of very vicious adoption of European legislation for two years, since we included a text in the Labor Code that says the MW should be 50% of the SRW. We did not do the right thing by adopting this European directive. I think this distortion is already having negative effects.”
„Budget salaries are growing, provided that the economy stagnates. In the end, it becomes a catastrophe, as in Romania, in France. We have introduced a perpetual motion machine - we raise budget salaries with loans, from there the average salary for the country also rises, from there the minimum, no matter what happens to the economy. We raise salaries with loans, this is a road to nowhere”, Velev also commented.