site.btaVazrazhdane Submits Amendments to Volunteering Bill

The Vazrazhdane parliamentary group has submitted its formal reasoning for proposed amendments to a bill on volunteering adopted by Parliament at first reading, the party said on Saturday.

Vazrazhdane argues that the bill covers only organized forms of volunteering and that is why it should be named the Organized Volunteering Act.

The party opposes provisions that would allow children, minors, protected adults, and migrants to participate in organized volunteering. Vazrazhdane warns that these risk opening the door to exploitation, disguised child labor, and evasion of labor laws, as volunteers could be used to carry out skilled work under the guise of unpaid service.

Volunteer activities cannot involve skilled labor for which formal certification is issued while volunteers receive monetary compensation but no real wages, according to the reasoning. The aim is to ensure that unfair competition and skilled work devaluation are not legalized.

Vazrazhdane proposes that all legal entities seeking to register as organizers of volunteer activities must disclose the source of their funding over the past five years. The party argues that this measure would prevent misuse of public funds, funding from questionable sources and money laundering under the guise of volunteering.

The party says that volunteers must be aged 18 or over and have no ongoing investigations and no record in the Children's Pedagogical Room.

In late June, Gabriel Valkov, MP and Chair of Parliament’s Committee on Youth and Sports Matters, expressed hope that a law on volunteering would be adopted soon.