• Education and training:
– Improving the skills of both the existing staff and the new employees;
– Monitoring the mechanism for coordinating the admission plan and the subject areas of the higher education system:
◊◊ Priority development of training in professions needed to develop the production and commercialization of innovations, and especially the technical education in secondary and higher education – to receive the status of protected specialties in vocational schools, but also at the level of technical universities – such as state quota and state scholarships in engineering fields and admission plan agreed with the employers;
◊◊ Defending the position to reduce the number of enrolled students for training in professions and specialties for which there is limited demand in the labour market and priority promotion of professions needed by companies;
◊◊ Encouraging and expanding the relationship between industry chambers, associations and companies and higher technical schools to pilot the introduction of dual training bachelors on the most important specialties for businesses;
◊◊ Structuring of reliable guarantees of commitment for employment in the Bulgarian economy for a certain period of students who complete their education with funding from the state budget (for example – for a period of 5 years);
– Active development of the “vocational school-enterprise” partnership model in accordance with best practices from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, including an evaluation of pilot projects and expansion of successful practices;
– Update of the curricula with active participation of representatives of established companies, leaders in their field, incl. consultation of teachers, introduction of the “mentor” position by those employed in the real sector, attraction of representatives of enterprises in the learning process – both in vocational schools and at technical universities;
– Development of programs by analogy with the existing “New Beginning – from Education to Employment” scheme of the EA and the ESF, as the range of funding partners can also be expanded – there is an interest from part of the business to selffinance such initiatives;
– Individual incentives to build technical knowledge and skills by analogy with past practices following the example of the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of the Youth;
– Engaging schools with the realization of staff trained by them on the labour market;
– Provision of qualified personnel, in close accordance with the needs of business;
– Promoting interdisciplinary education;
– Involvement of mayors, heads of major companies which form the industry in the municipalities, directors of secondary schools, labour offices and regional education inspectorates in order to bring the admission to professions and specialties according to the needs of the labour market, incl.:
– Achieving maximum flexibility in terms of working time, retirement, leaves;
– Active and committed participation in the work of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation regarding tabled labour laws;
– Reform of the system of occupational health services in the country;
– Reform of the medical and labour expertise;
– Complete health care reform – with specified funding sources, program budgets, final and intermediate targets, deadlines and responsibilities;
– Effective market and competition instead of freezing the prices of medicines or subsidizing the prices;
– Working to achieve the optimal balance between the levels of minimum wage and social benefits;
– The policy on income based on tripartite agreed targets, parameters and mechanisms shall have a direct impact on economic performance and increased nominal productivity of labour over pay through annual negotiations between employers and unions:
◊◊ Halting the negotiation of minimum insurance income. BICA studies show unequivocally that the minimum insurance income / thresholds (MII) has already played its role and the practice around them reflects primarily negatively on the economy and the employment policy;
◊◊ Removing the administrative determination of the minimum wage and introducing direct negotiations on the minimum wage by sectors or economic activities between unions and employers, taking into account the regional specifics as well.
A mechanism for objective, not administrative determination of the minimum wage;
◊◊ Removing the length-of-service salary increments (the so-called “classes”);
– Studying the approaches, principles and new forms of impact in determining the remuneration successfully applied in other countries;
– Encouraging voluntary negotiation at branch level on measures to limit or eliminate unfair competition;
– Focusing social assistance on the truly disadvantaged people – these includes both low-income and needy people – satisfying
both the principle of justice and the concept of efficient management of scarce financial resources – think first for the small and weak;
– More efficient spending of social funds by limiting early retirement, review of categorization and scope of categorical incentives in the public sector, in particular – military personnel, personnel at the Ministry of Interior and other specialized power departments, and definitive termination of disability pension and sick leave abuse;
– Termination of the abrupt and uncoordinated action on the pension reform and its continuation in a spirit of consensus with the social partners in order to ensure its real functioning and effective three-pillar pension system.
◊◊ Limiting the state plan for admission of students to specialties for which there is no demand on the labour market;
◊◊ Optimizing the network of vocational schools in the municipalities;
◊◊ Preparing proposals with the purpose of inclusion of the most important specialties for business development in the municipalities in the list of protected specialties;
– Promoting the realization of staff in the country in terms of professions experiencing a shortage of specialists and increasing the immigration of foreign staff, particularly from countries and territories with Bulgarian minorities, by simplifying the mechanisms for “blue card” issuance.

• Employment, income, security and labour laws:
– Achieving maximum flexibility in terms of working time, retirement, leaves;
– Active and committed participation in the work of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation regarding tabled labour laws;
– Reform of the system of occupational health services in the country;
– Reform of the medical and labour expertise;
– Complete health care reform – with specified funding sources, program budgets, final and intermediate targets, deadlines and responsibilities;
– Effective market and competition instead of freezing the prices of medicines or subsidizing the prices;
– Working to achieve the optimal balance between the levels of minimum wage and social benefits;
– The policy on income based on tripartite agreed targets, parameters and mechanisms shall have a direct impact on economic performance and increased nominal productivity of labour over pay through annual negotiations between employers and unions:
◊◊ Halting the negotiation of minimum insurance income. BICA studies show unequivocally that the minimum insurance income / thresholds (MII) has already played its role and the practice around them reflects primarily negatively on the economy and the employment policy;
◊◊ Removing the administrative determination of the minimum wage and introducing direct negotiations on the minimum wage by sectors or economic activities between unions and employers, taking into account the regional specifics as well. A mechanism for objective, not administrative determination of the minimum wage;
◊◊ Removing the length-of-service salary increments (the so-called “classes”);
– Studying the approaches, principles and new forms of impact in determining the remuneration successfully applied in other countries;
– Encouraging voluntary negotiation at branch level on measures to limit or eliminate unfair competition;
– Focusing social assistance on the truly disadvantaged people – these includes both low-income and needy people – satisfying both the principle of justice and the concept of efficient management of scarce financial resources – think first for the small and weak;
– More efficient spending of social funds by limiting early retirement, review of categorization and scope of categorical incentives in the public sector, in particular – military personnel, personnel at the Ministry of Interior and other specialized power departments, and definitive termination of disability pension and sick leave abuse;
– Termination of the abrupt and uncoordinated action on the pension reform and its continuation in a spirit of consensus with the social partners in order to ensure its real functioning and effective three-pillar pension system.