The new government has clearly decided to step in.
Today, the Council of Ministers adopted changes that shorten the period for registering returning seasonal workers from non-EU countries from 10 to just 3 working days.
Despite our repeated warnings and an officially submitted detailed opinion against this madness, initially proposed by Gyurov's office.
The decision is presented as bringing Bulgaria into line with European law, but this is completely misleading.
Yes, the European directive requires a simplified regime for seasonal workers who have already received a permit once. No, nowhere does it require the deadline to be so insanely short. This is the Bulgarian government's own political choice.
On May 27, in our opinion from the EKIP (link in the comments), we warned the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy that such a deadline is unrealistic and risks turning the inspection of employers, contracts and working conditions into a pure formality.
We also pointed out something very obvious - the doubling of permits issued in just one year indicates (according to AZ data) that it does not at all suggest that there is a "too slow" procedure.
Furthermore, I have personally searched more than once, and I have not found a single country in the EU with such a short deadline for approving workers from third countries. Not a single one.
The adopted changes also include "decentralization" of inspections at regional labor offices, as well as a change in the composition of the National Council for Labor Migration and Labor Mobility, which eliminates the requirement for participation by high-ranking government officials.
With regard to the regional labor offices, it is not at all clear whether they have the necessary capacity to cope with the new workload. And the National Council is the main inter-institutional and advisory body to the MLSP on labor migration issues.
This means that we have an abdication of political responsibility.
The regime for importing labor in our country has so far been a run-down yard, which is already turning into a pigsty. The "labor import" companies are sprouting like mushrooms because there is no control, no licensing regime, and after the permits expire there is no proactive check by the state on what happens to the imported workers.
Even more worrying is that the state is speeding up the procedures while continuing to fail to publish basic information about the results of the policy so far. In connection with these changes, the MLSP and the government have never presented a serious assessment of the potential impact, especially as far as the long-term effects on wages, productivity and economic development are concerned.
The government is blindly catering to the lobbying interests of businesses, which instead of looking for ways to improve the quality of their products and services and help Bulgaria's economy, inflate their profits to its long-term detriment.
Is this why "Progressive Bulgaria" was elected with an independent majority? To continue the disastrous policies of his predecessors in the Council of Ministers?
Deeply disappointing.
There is already a very strong dissatisfaction rising in society regarding the rapidly escalating uncontrolled and non-transparent import of cheap labor from third countries. It will become even stronger.