Labour contract in Bulgaria: what it must say in 2026

A Bulgarian labour contract (трудов договор, trudov dogovor) has to exist on paper: Article 62(1) of the Labour Code says so, and Article 66 sets out what the document must at least contain. A handshake, an email thread or a signed offer letter on its own does not meet the rule.

Article 66 asks for the basics that define the job. In practice the document should state at least the following:

• the parties: the employer and the employee, with their identifying details;
• the place of work, and for remote roles any additional places agreed;
• the job title and the nature of the work;
• the start date and the duration, open-ended or fixed-term;
• the paid annual leave entitlement, which cannot fall below 20 working days;
• the notice period for ending the contract;
• the basic monthly pay, any supplements, and how often pay is made;
• the agreed daily or weekly hours.

The contract is not frozen once signed. Raising the salary, retitling the role or moving the place of work all change it, and each change goes back to the NRA register on the same 3-day clock as the original. Keeping the contract and the register in step is ordinary housekeeping, and the register is the version the authorities see.

Since 1 January 2026 the pay figure is written in euro. Bulgarian salaries are normally quoted gross per month, so “€3,333.33 gross per month” is the usual form, not an annual number. Leva belong to history now; the fixed rate used at the changeover was 1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN.

Readers who want the statute can find the consolidated Labour Code at justice.government.bg, in Bulgarian only. It is the reference for every clause discussed below.

Before the employee does any work, the National Revenue Agency (NRA) must hold an entry for the contract in its employment register (регистър на заетостта). The employer has 3 days from signing to make the entry under Article 62(3), and the same 3-day window applies whenever the contract is changed.

Article 63 then adds a hard stop. The new starter is handed the signed contract and the register entry with the NRA’s certification, and only after that may the employer let them work. Many guides still call this step the “Article 62 notification”, the name it had before June 2025.

In practice the order runs like this: offer accepted, contract signed, register entry made, copies handed over, first working day. A candidate who wants to start on a Monday should sign in the previous week, so the entry and the certified copy are ready before they log in for the first time.

Missing it is expensive. Breaches of the written-contract, registration and admission-to-work rules are fined per breach, separately for the employer and for the responsible manager, with higher bands for repeats. A late entry is possible only after a binding instruction from the Labour Inspectorate.

This is also the point at which a contractor arrangement can come back to bite. Work that looks like employment must be done under a labour contract, as Article 1(2) of the Labour Code makes clear, and our guide to civil contracts versus employment in Bulgaria explains how the Labour Inspectorate looks at the difference.

A probation clause (срок за изпитване) can run for up to 6 months, under Article 70 of the Labour Code. When the contract itself is for less than a year, the maximum is 1 month.

The clause has to say in whose favour probation is agreed: the employer’s, the employee’s or both. During the period that party can end the contract without notice (Article 71). If it is agreed for the employer only, the employee who wants to leave still has to give normal notice.

Six months is a hard limit. It cannot be stretched by a later annex, and once it ends the employer needs a statutory ground to dismiss, as our piece on termination notice in Bulgaria explains. A full 6 months in favour of both sides gives the most room to assess fit; a shorter period can make an offer easier to accept for someone leaving a secure job.

Open-ended is the default in Bulgaria, and fixed terms are the exception. Article 68 reserves fixed terms mainly for work that is itself temporary, short-term or tied to a season; for other work a fixed term is exceptional and must run at least 1 year. No fixed term may exceed 3 years.

Two other fixed-term types exist: a contract that lasts until a defined piece of work is finished, and a contract to replace an absent employee, such as a colleague on maternity leave.

The consequence of getting this wrong is built into the statute. A fixed-term contract that breaches the rules is treated as open-ended. A company that signs a developer on rolling one-year terms for ongoing product work should expect that, if challenged, the person will be treated as permanent staff with full notice and dismissal protection.

Replacement contracts are the most common legitimate fixed term for a small team. The contract names the absent employee and ends when that person returns, which makes the end date uncertain but the purpose clear. It is a better fit than an arbitrary 12-month term for covering parental leave.

Notice also differs. An open-ended contract carries 30 days’ notice by default, extendable by agreement up to 3 months. A fixed-term contract carries 3 months, but never beyond the date it would have ended.

Normal working time in Bulgaria is capped at 40 hours a week, spread over five days of normally 8 hours each (Labour Code Article 136). The contract states the working time, and anything beyond it is overtime (извънреден труд), which the law limits tightly.

• At most 150 hours of overtime a year, or up to 300 where a collective agreement allows it (Article 146).
• At most 30 daytime hours a month, 6 a week, and 3 hours on each of 2 consecutive working days, with lower limits at night.
• Overtime pay of +50% or more for a normal working day, +75% for a rest day, +100% for a public holiday (Article 262).

The annual cap is tighter than it looks. Spread over a year, 150 hours is a little under 3 hours a week, so a team that routinely works late evenings will reach the legal ceiling long before December. Plan for headcount rather than for overtime.

An alternative for senior roles is the irregular working day (ненормиран работен ден). It lets the employer call on extra hours past the normal day when work demands, and in exchange the employee earns at least 5 additional days of paid leave each year under Article 156. It has to be written in; it cannot be assumed.

Rest time is protected too. Article 154b, added in 2024, gives staff a right to ignore work calls and messages from the employer while off duty, daily or weekly, unless an exception is written into the contract or a collective agreement. For teams that span time zones, it is worth writing the expected contact hours into the contract from the start.

Beyond the statutory minimum, a handful of clauses come up in almost every contract we prepare for a foreign client. Each one has a Bulgarian rule behind it.

• Remote work. Remote work (работа от разстояние) is voluntary and agreed in the contract, which can name more than one place of work. Costs fall on the employer: hardware, software, upkeep and connectivity, internet included.
• Second jobs. An employee may work for another employer unless the contract forbids it to protect trade secrets or avoid a conflict of interest (Article 111).
• Software and IP. Under Article 14 of the Copyright Act, code and databases produced in the course of employment are the employer’s copyright by default; the contract can change that.
• Confidentiality. Duties of confidentiality and trade-secret protection can continue after the job ends.
• Non-competes. A clause restricting the employee after the contract ends is void in Bulgaria. Bulgaria’s Supreme Court of Cassation has, from 2010 on, treated such clauses as clashing with the constitutional right to choose one’s occupation.
• Length-of-service bonus. The клас прослужено време (klas) is a monthly top-up on basic pay that the law requires for each year of recognised experience, earlier employers included. Decide whether the quoted salary includes it.

Klas needs a closer look than the other clauses. It arises after at least 1 year of recognised service, is updated no more than once a year and accrues only on days really worked in the main job. Previous service in the same or a similar job counts, including with other employers and in other EU states, so an experienced hire may bring a sizeable entitlement on day one.

Leave deserves a line of its own. Paid leave starts at 20 working days per year. Someone in their very first job must complete 4 months’ service before using it. Unused leave is paid out on exit.

Where the contract sits in the wider run of tasks, from setting pay to the first salary transfer, is laid out in our seven-stage plan for a first Bulgarian employee.

A role done mainly from home needs extra terms in that same document, and our note on remote working in Bulgaria lists them.

If the hire is made through Employer of Record Bulgaria, we sign the labour contract as the employer, and the employee’s counterparty under the Labour Code is us. The hiring decisions stay yours: who joins, in what role, at what pay and from when. Our side is the paperwork and payroll: a contract with the statutory content, an NRA entry in place before day one, and euro payroll every month after.

The EOR role in Bulgaria goes further into who handles what. Anyone weighing providers should request a sample contract, because the drafting of probation, notice, remote work and IP reveals a lot; further checks are in the guide to picking an EOR in Bulgaria.

A good contract will not prevent every dispute, but a weak one makes most of them harder. Getting probation, duration and working time right at signing costs far less than fixing them later.

Q01Can a Bulgarian employee be hired on a verbal agreement?+

A.No. The contract must be in writing (Article 62(1)) and include the Article 66 minimum: pay, hours, leave, notice and the other listed points.

Q02What is the maximum probation period in a Bulgarian contract?+

A.Six months. Where the whole contract runs for less than a year, the ceiling is 1 month, and neither limit can be extended.

Q03Can an employee start work before the NRA registration?+

A.No. After signing, the employer has 3 days to make the NRA register entry, and work can begin only once the employee holds the signed contract and the certified entry.

Q04What is the longest fixed term the Labour Code allows?+

A.Three years. A fixed-term contract that breaks the Article 68 rules is treated as open-ended.

Q05What is the normal working week in Bulgaria?+

A.Forty hours at most, normally five 8-hour days. Overtime normally may not exceed 150 hours in a year and earns a premium of at least 50%.