Termination notice in Bulgaria: periods, grounds and exit pay

Termination notice (предизвестие, predizvestie) in Bulgaria starts at a statutory 30 days for an open-ended labour contract. A contract may lengthen it, but not beyond 3 months. Article 326(2) of the Labour Code sets that rule, and it binds both sides equally: if the contract gives the employer 60 days, the employee who resigns also owes 60 days.

Fixed-term contracts work differently. Notice there is 3 months, but it can never run past the date on which the contract would have ended anyway. A developer with five weeks left on a fixed term therefore gets at most five weeks of notice, not three months.

The clock starts on the day after the written notice reaches the other party. That small detail matters in practice. A letter handed over on a Friday afternoon starts the period on Saturday, and a notice sent by courier starts only once it is received, so the date of delivery should be provable. We ask the employee to sign and date a copy for that reason.

Resignations follow the same arithmetic. An employee who wants to leave hands over written notice and works the agreed period, and if either side wants the employment to stop sooner, Article 220 converts the unserved days into gross pay. In a small team the choice between holding someone to a long notice and letting them go early is often commercial rather than legal: a reluctant developer on day 80 of a 90-day notice rarely ships much.

Anything longer than 30 days has to be written into the contract or an annex before it can be relied on. If you want senior hires to give you a full quarter’s warning, agree that at the offer stage. Raising it after a resignation letter has arrived is too late.

A Bulgarian employer who wants to end a contract with notice must point to a reason that the Labour Code itself names, in Article 328. There is no general right to let someone go because the relationship is not working or because the business would simply prefer a different person. Founders used to hiring in the US should read our comparison of at-will hiring and the Bulgarian dismissal rules before they plan a team.

The Article 328 list covers events in the business and facts about the employee. Examples include closure of the enterprise or part of it, a reduction in staff, a reduced volume of work, the employee lacking the qualities needed to do the job effectively, and the employee becoming entitled to a pension. Each ground has its own conditions, and the notice letter has to name the ground relied on.

Disciplinary dismissal is a separate route. Under Article 330 the employer can dismiss without notice for serious breaches of work discipline, but the misconduct has to be documented and the procedure followed. A dismissal that rests on thin evidence is the kind most likely to be challenged.

What this means for a foreign company is that the reason for ending a role must be framed in Bulgarian legal terms before anything is said to the employee. “Performance concerns” is not a ground. A real reduction in headcount for a project that has ended may be one, provided the records show it.

During a probation period, the party in whose favour probation was agreed can end the contract without giving any notice and without stating a reason (Labour Code Article 71). Probation itself (срок за изпитване) has a ceiling of 6 months. Where the whole contract is shorter than a year, the ceiling drops to 1 month.

Wording matters here. If the contract says probation is in favour of the employer only, the employee cannot use it to leave without notice, and the reverse is also true. Many contracts state that it applies in favour of both parties, which gives each side the same freedom during those months.

Six months is the ceiling, and it cannot be extended by agreement. Once it has expired, the ordinary rules apply in full: a statutory ground, written notice and any compensation due. Probation wording, fixed terms and hours are covered in a separate piece on the labour contract in Bulgaria.

Because the window is short, it is worth booking a structured review well before the last week. A decision taken on day 182 of a six-month probation is no longer a probation decision.

The final pay depends on how the employment ends, and the Labour Code fixes minimum amounts for each route. The main items are set out below, all calculated on gross pay.

• Pay in lieu of notice (Article 220). Where the notice period is not worked, the party who cuts it short pays gross pay for the days not served.
• Business-related dismissal (Article 222(1)). On closure, staff reduction, reduced workload or a work stoppage running past 15 working days, the employee receives gross pay for the time they remain unemployed, for up to 1 month. A contract can promise more.
• Pension entitlement (Article 222(3)). When employment ends after the person has acquired the right to a pension, compensation is 2 months’ gross pay, rising to 6 months’ where they have spent a decade with the same employer or group in the 20 years before leaving.
• Unused annual leave (Article 224). Every untaken day of paid leave is paid out, whatever the reason for leaving.
• Mutual consent proposed by the employer (Article 331). If the employer offers to end the contract against compensation and the employee accepts, the payment is at least 4 months’ gross pay.

Take the developer from our cost model, on €3,333.33 a month gross. An agreed exit under Article 331 would cost at least four times that, about €13,333, plus any unused leave. A staff-reduction dismissal with 30 days’ notice worked would usually cost a month of notice pay, up to one further month of compensation if the person stays unemployed, and the leave balance.

Final pay is processed through Bulgarian payroll like any other month. Contributions and the flat 10% income tax are withheld, and contributions stop at the monthly ceiling, which has been €2,300 since 1 August 2026.

Some employees cannot be dismissed on certain grounds without the prior permission of the Labour Inspectorate. Article 333 of the Labour Code sets out who is covered and for which grounds, and related rules in Article 307 add stricter protection in specific situations. The categories and conditions are detailed, so we read the article against the facts of each case before any notice is drafted, and the General Labour Inspectorate (gli.government.bg) is the authority that decides on permission.

The practical lesson is to check protection first and choose the ground second. A notice handed over without a permission that was needed is open to challenge, and the time lost restarting the process often costs more than the original notice period.

Collective dismissals have their own procedure under Article 130a. Where it applies, the employer opens talks with employee representatives at least 45 days ahead of the planned dismissal date. A business closing a small Bulgarian team should raise this early, since the consultation period runs before the 30-day individual notices would normally start.

Employees who think a dismissal was unlawful can take the employer to court. That is one more reason to keep a clean file: the ground, the evidence behind it, the notice and proof of delivery.

A contract that has ended must be closed off in the National Revenue Agency (NRA) employment register, and the employer has 7 days to do it. It is the same register the contract was entered in before the first working day, under Article 62(3) of the Labour Code.

The last month’s contributions and withheld tax go out on the normal cycle, with the usual deadline of the 25th in the following month. Leave pay, notice pay and compensation appear on the final payslip so the employee can see how each figure was reached.

The employee also needs documents to move on. The final payslip, confirmation of the last working day and the paperwork showing insured periods help them start with a new employer, so we issue them together rather than piecemeal.

Keep copies of everything. In Bulgaria the paper trail is the evidence: the signed notice, the delivery date, the ground relied on, any Labour Inspectorate permission and the register entry.

Under Employer of Record Bulgaria, the Bulgarian contract names us as the employer, so the notice, the register entry and the final payroll are issued in our name. You stay in charge of the business decision: whether a role continues, how the work is shared and who you want on your team. How the rest of the work divides between you and us is the subject of a separate post on the EOR role in Bulgaria.

In practice an exit runs in four steps. You tell us what has changed and why. We match that to a Labour Code ground, check for any protection and confirm the notice period in the contract. We prepare the written notice or a mutual-consent offer and calculate the final pay. After the last day we record the termination with the NRA and close the payroll.

The same discipline applies at the start of employment. Notice length and probation are fixed when the contract is first drafted, as the EOR timeline in Bulgaria explains, which is the cheapest moment to get them right.

Before any notice goes out, we work through the same short list with you:

• Is the person still on probation, and in whose favour was it agreed?
• Which notice period does the contract set: the 30-day default or something longer?
• Which Article 328 ground fits the facts, and what records support it?
• Does any special protection apply that needs Labour Inspectorate permission?
• How many days of paid leave are untaken, and what compensation is due on this ground?
• Will the notice be worked, or paid in lieu, and from which date does it run?

Answering those six questions usually takes a few emails. Skipping them is how a straightforward exit turns into a dispute.

None of this removes the need for judgement. Each exit depends on its facts, and where a case is contested we recommend independent legal advice in Bulgaria before any letter is sent.

Q01What is the standard termination notice in Bulgaria?+

A.Thirty days for an open-ended contract. The contract can extend it to a maximum of 3 months. The same period applies whether the employer or the employee gives notice.

Q02Can a Bulgarian employer dismiss someone without a reason?+

A.No. Once probation is over, a dismissal needs an Article 328 reason or a disciplinary basis under Article 330. Bulgaria has no at-will dismissal.

Q03Does Bulgarian law require severance pay?+

A.It depends on why the job ends. Staff reductions and closures carry up to 1 month’s gross pay while the person is unemployed, retirement-related exits carry 2 or 6 months, and an employer-proposed mutual-consent exit carries at least 4 months’ gross pay. Unused leave is always paid out.

Q04Can probation be ended without notice?+

A.Yes. The party in whose favour probation was agreed can end the contract without notice during the probation period, which can be up to 6 months.

Q05Who tells the NRA that employment has ended?+

A.The employer does, by updating the NRA employment register within a week (7 days) of the final day. When we employ your hire, we make that entry.