site.btaFour-Day Working Week Faces Doubts in Bulgaria

European countries are considering a shift to a four-day working week, and employers and unions in Bulgaria comment on the idea’s feasibility. 

Greece and Poland are piloting new work models, but Eurostat data show that Bulgaria continues to have some of the longest official working hours in the EU.

In recent years, several European countries have proposed reducing the standard working week from five to four days. In Greece, a bill under public consultation includes flexible work options, such as allowing parents to work four ten-hour days per week. Poland has introduced a pilot program to enable employees to spend more time with their families. Comparable initiatives are underway in other European countries.

According to Bulgaria’s Labour Code, the standard workweek consists of five days and a legal maximum of 40 hours. A May Eurostat report shows that Greece and Bulgaria have the highest average weekly working hours in the EU, with Bulgarians working an average of 39 hours per week.

Maria Mincheva, Deputy Chair of the Bulgarian Industrial Association, said that Bulgaria is not prepared to adopt a four-day workweek while maintaining the eight-hour workday and current wage levels. She noted that the country’s aging population and declining workforce would lead to reduced productivity. Mincheva explained that Bulgaria has not yet achieved sufficient digitalization and automation to offset the shortage of manual labor and enable more free time.

She described the Greek bill, which retains a 40-hour workweek by consolidating those hours into four 10-hour days, ensuring that employees’ insurance and pay remain unchanged. However, Mincheva argued that this model is also not feasible for Bulgaria due to restrictions on daily working hours, so it could only be implemented in exceptional cases with rigorous conditions regarding the type of business, number of employment contracts, and the method of overtime compensation. Implementing such changes would require amendments to national legislation.

Kiril Boshev, Deputy Chair of the Association of Industrial Capital (AICB), stated that shifting to a four-day, eight-hour workweek would reduce productivity by 20% while maintaining current employer costs, resulting in lower economic activity, job losses, and decreased budget revenues. He noted that such measures are unsuitable for an open economy like Bulgaria's, which faces strong competition for both labor and production.

He noted that Bulgaria’s productivity remains significantly below the European average, while Europe overall trails behind both the United States and China. Boshev observed that the Bulgarian economy faces distinct challenges and cannot be directly compared to other economies.

Boshev also rejected Greece’s proposal for a four-day, ten-hour workweek, stating that “people are not robots.” He argued that this approach would reduce productivity and motivation toward the end of the workday and constitutes an unwarranted intrusion into established market-based employer–employee negotiations.

Alexander Zagorov, Secretary of the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa, noted that any modification to the working week would require consultation with employees. He added that employers would need to adjust working hours and revise reporting procedures, which could create operational challenges.

Zagorov noted that certain non-traditional sectors in Bulgaria, such as IT, are already adopting more flexible work arrangements. In some organizations, employees may take Fridays as personal days under internal policies, and remote work provides an additional means of working independently from the office.

Zagorov indicated that such agreements are possible through collective bargaining, allowing employees and unions to propose a four-day workweek. However, he observed that there is currently low demand for a four-day workweek among Bulgarian workers.

Todor Kapitanov, Vice President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), said that some local companies are piloting four-day workweeks without reducing pay. He noted that the feasibility of this model varies by sector, with retail, healthcare, and transport being less suitable for such changes.

He identified the main challenges as market-driven rather than legal. The Labour Code allows flexibility with mutual agreement, but staff shortages pose a greater challenge. Kapitanov noted that Bulgarian employees often handle multiple roles, making employers hesitant to reduce the working week when they already struggle to meet operational demands with limited personnel. In sectors requiring continuous operations, organizational challenges can be especially pronounced.

Kapitanov identified pay as the central issue. Maintaining current pay levels can encourage greater efficiency, but if employers offset changes by lowering wages, employees may feel disadvantaged, negating the benefits and reducing support for the transition.

The four-day workweek is an established concept that has already been adopted by organizations and countries globally.