Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

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

Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the information supplied by the Government at the Conference Committee in 1990, and in its last report, as well as the documentation appended thereto.

Constitutional and legislative provisions concerning discrimination in employment and occupation

1. The Committee notes with satisfaction the amendments to the Constitution published on 10 April 1990, which delete all references to the leading role of the Communist Party in society and in the State and provide for political pluralism and the right for citizens to freely express and circulate their opinion on matters of a political, economic, social, cultural and religious nature, thus eliminating the basis for the application of distinctions, exclusions or preferences in employment and occupation based on political opinion.

2. The Committee also notes with satisfaction that section 172 of the Penal Code, as amended by the Act of 19 December 1990, punishes with imprisonment or fine anyone who knowingly prevents someone from taking up work or forces someone to quit work on the grounds of ethnicity, race, religion, social status, affiliation or non-affiliation to a party, organisation, political movement or politically oriented coalition, or on the grounds of his/her political ideas or the ideas of his/her close relations; and that paragraph (2) thereof provides for a prison sentence for any public official who does not implement an order or decision to reinstate a worker or a public official whose employment has been wrongly terminated.

3. The Committee notes with interest that the newly elected National Assembly will be involved in a vast law-making activity, including the adoption of a new Constitution and a revision of the Labour Code, in which the Committee's comments will be duly taken into consideration. The Committee recalls that article 35 (2) of the Constitution and section 8 (3) of the 1987 Labour Code do not mention "political opinion" and "national extraction" among the grounds on which no discrimination, privilege or restriction is allowed, and hopes that these provisions will be amended in accordance with Article 1, paragraph 1(a), of the Convention. The Committee is drawing attention to other provisions of the Labour Code in a request addressed directly to the Government.

The position of the minority of Turkish origin

4. In its previous observation, following the comments received in 1989 from the Confederation of Turkish Labour Real Trade Unions, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the International Organisation of Employers, which referred to a campaign aiming at suppressing the cultural identity of the minority of Turkish origin in Bulgaria, particularly by the compulsory change of names and the prohibition of using the Turkish language, the Committee had taken note of a decision adopted by the Council of State and the Council of Minsters on 29 December 1989 and of a statement adopted by the National Assembly on 16 January 1990 to put an end to these violations of the principle of equality laid down in Article 35 of the Constitution and to reaffirm the rights of all citizens to: freedom of conscience, belief and religion; free choice of name; and, subject to recognition and use of Bulgarian as the official language, freedom to speak other languages. The Committee had asked for information on the further measures taken in pursuance of these decisions and for particular steps taken to enable persons who had suffered discrimination as a result of the earlier policy to obtain redress.

5. The Committee notes with interest the adoption of Act No. 243 of 9 March 1990, as amended on 15 November 1990, on the names of Bulgarian citizens, which declares illegal, under the Penal Code, the use of threats, constraint, force, lie or abuse of power or any other illegal action in connection with the choice, retention, change or re-establishment of the name, and which enables all Bulgarian citizens whose name had been changed by force to return to their former name by a simplified procedure. It notes the Government's statement that the adoption of this Act put an end to the consequences of past actions intended to change Turkish-Arab names, and that now the enjoyment of the right to the free choice of name is in accordance with the principles contained in the Convention. The Committee also notes the changes towards recognition of the cultural identity of the minority of Turkish origin in the establishment of a Muslim secondary school and a Muslim non-university school in Sofia, as well as the publication of the journal "Nova Svetlina" (New Light) in both Bulgarian and Turk languages.

6. With regard to the measures taken to enable persons who had suffered discrimination as a result of the earlier policy to obtain redress, the Committee takes note of Order No. 57 of 1 June 1990, which establishes an indemnity for all persons forcibly expelled in September and October 1989, and of Decision No. 8 of the Parliament Committee declaring the political and civil rehabilitation of 517 persons unjustly deprived of liberty and detained at Béléné in relation to the forced change of names. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures which have been taken to ensure that these persons, as well as other persons whose employment was terminated because of their failure to change their name or on account of their Turkish origin, are reinstated in their former employment or occupation, that their rights arising out of their former employment or occupation are recognised and that they are effectively compensated for the losses incurred.

7. The Committee notes the statement by a government representative at the Conference Committee to the effect that from May to October 1989, over 300,000 persons had left the country, most of them in order to find better conditions of work and remuneration abroad. Many of them left their jobs hastily, without respecting the provisions of the Labour Code, and were therefore dismissed according to disciplinary procedures. Some of them had sold their property - houses and goods - or cancelled their leases. More than 130,000 of them had returned to Bulgaria between June and December 1989, and by June 1990 this figure had reached 220,000. The two main problems faced by the returnees were employment and housing. In this regard, the Committee notes with interest that Order No. 29 of 9 April 1990, which sets out to solve the social problems of Bulgarian citizens in certain regions of the country, addresses the housing problems faced by returnees though various measures including provision for returning citizens to repurchase their former house and priority for the construction of new housing along with measures of public assistance and education to allow students in those areas to resume their studies. With regard to the employment problems faced by the returnees, the Government states that 121 employment offices, which were opened in January 1990 throughout the country, are at the disposal of all citizens on an equal basis and give special consideration to those who had returned from abroad and were having problems. In the city of Tolbouhin, factories had rehired those returning workers who had suffered disciplinary dismissals. Generally though, return to work of the workers of the Turkish origin, including those who returned from abroad, was being dealt with on an individual case basis. The Committee takes note of this information and requests the Government to continue to provide information (including statistics), on all measures taken or contemplated to assist persons of Turkish origin who returned to Bulgaria after having left the country as a result of the earlier policy to find appropriate employment and housing.

8. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged generally to promote equality of opportunity and treatment for the minority of Turkish origin, and on the results obtained with regard to:

- access to vocational training;

- access to employment and to particular occupations;

- terms and conditions of employment.

The Committee also recalls that under Article 3, paragraphs 1 and 2, of the Convention, the Government is required to seek the co-operation of employers' and workers' organisations and other appropriate bodies, and to promote such educational programmes as may be calculated to secure the acceptance and observance of the policy of equality of opportunity and treatment, and it hopes that the next report will indicate the steps taken to foster understanding and tolerance between various groups of the population.

[The Government is asked to report in detail for the period ending 30 June 1991.]