Bulgarian Labour Minister Busts Building Site - Sophia Echo

Bulgaria will draft a list of companies that are repeat offenders against the country's labour laws and these companies will be barred from access to operational programmes and European funds, Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova said on July 14.She was speaking after leading officials and journalists on snap inspections of a building site in the capital city's Manastirski Livadi neighbourhood near Bulgaria Boulevard and of a pizzeria.The inspections were part of a "mass check-up" that has started throughout Bulgaria, the Labour and Social Policy Ministry said.The ministry ordered that work be suspended at the building site after the snap inspection found that workers lacked safety equipment, that two workers were under-age, and that two out of eight workers did not have employment contracts or national insurance. Stairs lacked railings and the cargo lift was unsafe, according to a statement on the website of Maslarova's ministry.The ministry said that the building site had been selected randomly after workers on the top floor of the building were seen not wearing safety helmets.At the pizzeria, in Sofia's Buxton Street, Maslarova said that there were discrepancies between the payments recorded in employees' labour contracts and the actual amounts that they got.General Labour Inspectorate officials questioned pizzeria employees about their working hours and checked that equipment used in preparing food met required standards.Maslarova said that the fine for deliberately inaccurate declarations of salaries was from 1500 to 5000 leva.Planned amendments to the Labour Code would allow the ministry to shut down companies that lied about salary payments. Maslarova said that military sites where civilians are employed would also be inspected.According to a report by Bulgarian news website mediapool.bg, the chief secretary of the labour inspectorate, Rumyana Mihailova, said that the Defence Ministry had requested information about all sites in the country where munitions were stored.This is a sequel to the July 3 series of explosions at the Chelopechene munitions dump outside Sofia. After the Chelopechene blasts, involving ageing weaponry detonating and causing serious damage to surrounding property, it emerged that the site was guarded by two retired people.Mihailova said that after official data had been received, all military sites where civilians were employed would be checked, with specific attention to occupational safety, working hours and pay.