Annual leave and sick pay in Bulgaria: the employee's rights

Working life · Last reviewed: 2026-08-26

Annual leave: a 20-working-day floor, a negotiable ceiling

The Labour Code's rule is single and it is a floor: every employee's paid annual leave may not be less than 20 working days (Art. 155). The stress on „working“ matters — weekends and public holidays do not count towards the number; 20 days of leave thus corresponds to four calendar weeks of rest. Because the statutory number is a floor, the employment or collective contract can grant more; with corporate employers a range of 22-26 working days is a common negotiated outcome. The comparison with Türkiye is what surprises relocating employees most: instead of a seniority ladder, Bulgaria gives everyone the same strong floor regardless of tenure — and that floor is clearly higher than the early-career entitlement in Türkiye.

The only threshold for acquiring the right is the service requirement at FIRST employment: to start using leave, an employee must have accumulated at least 4 months of service in total (Art. 155). The threshold is crossed once in a career — you do not restart the count with a second employer. Leave is used by agreement with the employer, as a rule upon written request; the employer may plan around the work, but has no luxury of simply not granting leave. The law also builds the regime for carrying unused leave into the next year under certain conditions, and a limitation regime — the strategy of „my days are piling up, they will keep“ can cause loss of rights in Bulgaria over the long run; if you have accumulated leave, fix a written carry-over and usage plan with HR.

Additional leave: who gets more than 20

The law adds leave on top of the floor for particular working conditions (Art. 156): work in harmful or specific risky conditions brings at least 5 working days, and work under the „irregular working day“ status (ненормиран работен ден — a pattern that by the job's nature spills beyond normal hours) again at least 5 working days of additional paid leave. Which positions carry those statuses is set by the workplace's internal rules; if your contract says „ненормиран работен ден“, look for the corresponding extra leave in it too — a clause without the leave is a matter for correction, not negotiation. Beyond these, the law contains targeted leave for marriage, bereavement and blood donation, and a study-leave regime — for detail, consult the Labour Code's relevant sections and the Labour Inspectorate's guidance.

Unpaid leave: an agreement, not a right

Unpaid leave (неплатен отпуск) in Bulgaria is, as a rule, subject to the employer's consent — it is not a right the employee can exercise unilaterally. Two practical consequences follow. First, if you are planning a long stay in Türkiye or a personal project, raise it early and in writing; unpaid leave taken on a spoken „we'll sort it out“ can turn into a dispute about your position on return. Second, only a limited, statutorily defined part of unpaid leave counts towards length of service — clarify with HR the effect of long unpaid leave on pension and seniority. How your insurance contributions run during that period belongs to the same conversation; our article on health insurance deductions helps here.

The bolnichen: how the sickness system works

When you fall ill, the Bulgarian system is called the „bolnichen list“ — a certificate of temporary incapacity issued by a doctor. The process runs like this: you go to your GP (or the relevant specialist), the doctor examines you and issues the certificate in the electronic system; it reaches your employer and the NSSI electronically — you chase no paper, but informing your employer at once remains your obligation. There is no „I'll write myself off sick from home“; only a doctor issues the certificate and only the doctor sets its period. In prolonged illness the certificate is extended through medical commissions.

The money flows in two stages, and since 2024 the rule is this: the employer pays the first 2 working days of incapacity — no less than 70% of the average daily gross pay for the month in which the incapacity arose. (Before 2024 the employer's share was three days; the two-day rule applies to incapacity arising after 31 December 2023.) From the third working day payment passes to the NSSI. The general condition for the NSSI benefit is at least 6 months of insurance record for this risk; a newly insured person without those 6 months is not owed even the first two days' payment. These rules were taken from the NSSI's official guidance on 26 August 2026; verify the current values on the official page.

The NSSI benefit's rate depends on the cause: for general illness the daily benefit is 80% of the average daily insurable income of the last 18 calendar months; for a work accident or occupational disease it is 90%. In the work-accident branch the benefit runs until capacity is restored or invalidity is determined. The gap between the two rates also explains why properly RECORDING a work accident is critical: an employee who papers over a workshop accident with „I fell at home“ risks not just the rate but their future invalidity rights. The rates were taken from NSSI sources as of 26 August 2026; verify the current value on the official page.

1. 1

   See the doctor, have the certificate issued

   Only a doctor issues the incapacity certificate; go on day one so the certificate covers it. The document is entered into the electronic system.
2. 2

   Inform the employer the same day

   Even though the certificate lands in the system, notifying the employer is your duty — by phone or email, per your workplace's procedure.
3. 3

   See the first two working days on the employer's payroll

   Those two days are paid by the employer with the salary and appear as a separate payslip item.
4. 4

   From the third day, expect the NSSI payment

   The NSSI transfers the benefit to your declared bank account. On your first bolnichen, check via HR that the account details were filed correctly.
5. 5

   Follow the regime on the certificate

   The treatment regime written on the certificate is binding; breaching it in a check can stop the benefit.

A short window onto maternity and parental leave

This article's focus is annual leave and sickness, but for completeness: Bulgaria is among the EU's generous countries on maternity and childcare — pregnancy-and-birth leave and the subsequent childcare periods form a long regime supported by NSSI benefits. Its periods, rates and the father's rights deserve their own article and should be read together with our texts on pregnancy care and giving birth. One practical warning here: maternity benefits also carry insurance-record conditions — newcomers to the Bulgarian labour market who plan a family should watch their contribution months with that eye too.

Public holidays and bridge days

The leave plan is built together with the public holiday calendar. On official holidays no work is done and those days are not deducted from annual leave; when a holiday falls on a weekend a compensation regime applies, and in some years the government arranges „bridge“ working-day swaps. Movable feasts such as Easter shift every year — make your annual plan in January, after the year's official calendar is announced. You will find the full list and current compensation rules in our public holidays article; the tactical advice here is one line: an employee who glues the 20 days to the bridges extracts a visibly longer rest from the same right.

Leave and sickness during probation

Bulgarian employment contracts often carry a probation clause, and the most common newcomer misconception is „I have no rights during probation“. The truth is different: an employee on probation is insured too, and both the leave right and the sickness regime work for them unchanged. The difference lies in the ease of termination — the party in whose favour the probation is agreed can end the contract without notice. The practical conclusion is tactical: long leave and frequent sick notes during probation, though legally your right, can trigger a „let's not continue“ decision against which your protection is narrow. In genuine illness, of course take the note; but building your leave plans for after probation ends is wisdom confirmed by experience.

The extra windows of the employee with children

For employees with children the regime has two important extra windows. The first is the sick note for caring for an ill family member: when your child falls ill, the doctor can issue the certificate not to the child but to you, the caring parent, and the NSSI pays a benefit for those days too; there are age limits and day ceilings — learn the current detail from the NSSI page and your HR. The second is the culture of de facto priority for parents in planning: school holidays are known in advance and most workplaces show understanding for parents aligning summer leave with them — but this is practice, not statute, so bring the request early and in writing. The full regime of maternity, paternity and childcare leave is the subject of our separate article.

Owners and the self-insured: how these rights work for you

The regime in this article is for those working under an employment contract — the picture differs for the owner self-insured through their own EOOD and for freelancers. Paid annual leave is a right exercised against an employer; if you are your own employer, there is legally no „leave entitlement“ — rest is a matter for your own calendar. With sick pay the choice is yours: self-insured persons who have opted to pay contributions COVERING the general-illness-and-maternity risk can receive the bolnichen benefit; those paying only the minimum mandatory scope cannot. The choice is made annually and affects the contribution cost — discuss openly with your accountant the question „am I paying for the sickness risk?“. The owner who falls ill without knowing the answer learns they are without a benefit on the worst possible day.

The politics of leave: who wins the calendar, and how

The law grants the rights; the calendar is distributed by the workplace's quiet politics. In summer and in the New Year week everyone wants the same days; the winners are those who file their request in writing in January or February and can see and fill the gaps in the team calendar. Two practical tactics: first, submit your leave as a yearly plan in one go — whoever asks piecemeal negotiates each request separately, while the planner's calendar becomes the rule. Second, close the holiday bridges early: bridge days go to the first asker, and the employee who turns two days of leave into nine days of rest does it not thanks to the law but to calendar intelligence. If you are the manager, the other face of the same politics applies: building a fair rotation, so that the same people do not close August every summer, is your job.

In a dispute: how rights are protected

Against an employer who blocks leave, delays sick pay or cultivates a „we don't do sick notes here“ culture, the employee's address is clear: the General Labour Inspectorate (ГИТ). Complaints are filed in writing, the inspectorate holds control powers, and in practice it gets results above all through the documentary record (contracts, payslips, leave records). The second line of defence is the document itself: keep leave requests and answers in writing, keep your payslips, archive your correspondence during sick periods. The trap Turkish employees often fall into is trusting the oral culture — Bulgaria's labour bureaucracy runs on writing, and on the day of a dispute the paper in your hand is stronger than your word.

The account on leaving: unused leave and a running bolnichen

When the employment relationship ends, two entitlement items come to the table. The first is compensation for unused leave: the money for days earned but not used by the exit date is paid with the final settlement — this item is not a matter of bargaining but a statutory claim, and it should show on the „обезщетение“ line of your payslip. The second is the situation of a bolnichen still running on the day of parting: since the incapacity benefit is tied to the insurance relationship, how the certificate's period and the payment flow intersect with the exit must be clarified through HR and the NSSI — neither the assumption „I left, so the sick note ended too“ nor „they cannot process my exit while the note runs“ holds in every case. Go to the exit meeting with two documents: a statement of your leave balance and, if any, the record of your open sick note. Those two papers are the guarantee of a complete final settlement; our article on dismissal rules completes the whole picture.

A three-month plan for the newly hired

Someone starting work in Bulgaria should assemble the following file in their first three months. Month one: read the leave days in your contract, the additional-leave clauses and the probation term; choose your GP — the bolnichen chain does not work without one. Month two: learn the workplace's leave request procedure (form, system, who approves) and the sick-note notification channel; confirm your bank account is filed for NSSI payments. Month three: draft your leave plan to year-end together with the holiday bridges and discuss it with your manager. This three-month homework makes the difference between rights on paper and rights in use — and equips you with the quiet dignity of an employee who knows what is theirs.

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