BTA. Bulgaria Accelerates Seasonal Employment in Tourism from Third Countries

Caretaker Tourism Minister Ilin Dimitrov and caretaker Labour Minister Lazar Lazarov discussed Wednesday measures to overcome the shortage of staff in the tourism sector before the start of the active summer season. They rated highly the coordination and cooperation between the two ministries and identified measures for its development in the future, the Tourism Ministry here said.

Caretaker Deputy Tourism Minister Irena Georgieva, National Employment Agency Executive Director Polina Marinova and General Labour Inspectorate Executive Director Ekaterina Asenova also took part in the discussion.

Steps have already been taken towards the increase of the staff of the Employment Agency and the Migration Directorate of the Interior Ministry, which are engaged in processing employers' applications for access to the Bulgarian labour market of non-EU workers. This will lead to faster issuance of permits.

Organizational measures are also envisaged to improve coordination and optimize the procedure for document exchange between the responsible institutions, which will facilitate and accelerate the recruitment of staff for seasonal employment in the tourism sector.

Lazarov presented the conditions and benefits for the employment of foreign workers, set in the agreements on the labour migration regulation, which Bulgaria has signed with Georgia, Moldova and Armenia. He stressed that the Labour Ministry will continue to work towards identifying other countries for cooperation in this area. An easier procedure for employers to submit documents when applying to hire a larger number of foreign workers is also being considered.