site.btaBulgarian Trade Union Launches Europe's First Union AI Assistant to Protect Workers' Rights

The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) presented on Friday an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, through which users will be able to ask questions and receive answers regarding working conditions, income, collective bargaining, and workplace rights. The website is already available, and access to it is free. CITUB said that this is the first union AI assistant in Europe.

CITUB Vice President Todor Kapitanov demonstrated how the digital assistant works.

“We believe that technologies are not only for business and administration, but also for protecting workers’ rights, and the trade union AI is the first step in this direction,” Kapitanov told journalists. He also noted that the website can provide information to both employers and workers and employees, as well as trade union representatives.

“We named it ‘Chavdar,’” said CITUB President Plamen Dimitrov. “With it, we are taking responsibility not only to respond to digital changes, but also to actively participate in directing them in favor of the interests of workers,” he said.

The AI assistant was developed under a social partnership scheme, in which CITUB participates, said Tsvetan Spasov, head of the Managing Authority of the Human Resources Development Programme at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. “This is the result of our joint efforts to improve the protection of workers,” he said.

Regarding the digital clubs, the Ministry is implementing an investment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan worth over EUR 200 million, Spasov said. “The goal is to ensure access to digital technologies in every settlement, and so far we have built nearly 1,300 digital clubs in more than 1,100 settlements,” he explained.

CITUB Vice President Daniela Alexieva announced the opening of a network of 28 digital clubs that the union, in partnership with several organizations, has managed to establish.