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Anastasia Balezdrova

So far, the economic crisis in Greece has increased unemployment in the country to a record 18 per cent. According to recent data from the Greek statistical service, 740 jobs are lost every day in the country. This situation has affected not only the Greeks but also the immigrants, who have been living and working in the country for years. Bulgarians are among them too. Many of them lost their jobs last year, while others agreed to have their income reduced by nearly half, determined to protect their income.

In a conversation with GRReporter, Bulgarians who have settled in Greece for years complained that the Bulgarian embassy in Athens does not help them with job search in any way. We sought a response from the competent person – the head of the Office of Employment and Social Affairs Ekaterina Dimitrova, who defined the claims of Bulgarian citizens living and working in Greece as "deeply unfair".

She said there is no such European Union legislation, which requires labour attaches to deal with the collection of job openings in the country and publish them in the newspapers for Bulgarians. "I would like to stress that before their departure from Bulgaria, they should be well informed about where and how they could find work in the country they are going to. Neither the Embassy, nor the labour and social issues office has such obligations. On the website of the Ministry of Employment, there is information about the service for Greece and Cyprus, which lists its tasks. And at the bottom of the page in large red letters it is stated that the service does not engage in job search and informing Bulgarian citizens about job openings. It is simply not possible for any state to create parallel structures in the state, where the respective embassy is."

Ekaterina Dimitrova explained how people should find information before they decide to seek employment in other European countries. "When the European citizen goes to another European country, he or she does not go to the embassy of the country, to ask for job openings. This person has sought work in advance on the Eures webpage. This is a pan-European system, which advertises job openings. The person has information about the market, may even have already applied for a certain job, and has agreed to start work, i.e. to arrive in the other country with almost agreed contract."

Bulgaria is also involved in this programme and all those interested can be informed about job openings in Greece. "Furthermore, after arrival in Greece, a Bulgarian citizen can go to the relevant employment agencies and be listed there as a European citizen. There, he or she may state their professions and abilities to enable the employees to direct them, because the offices themselves have lists of job openings in specific areas. Then the person has to go to the employer to negotiate the working conditions, the wage and all else required to start working. The embassy has no functions here."

According to her, embassies have quite different tasks related to co-ordinating the social security systems. "Many Bulgarians have been working here for years and therefore, they are entitled to receive pension from here. In practice, our work is related to optimizing the relationship between insurance services in Greece and Bulgaria to speed up the pensions, to remove some obstacles that may appear, to inform citizens about their rights, which are the same as those of Greek citizens. We often meet with the Bulgarians in Greece - in Athens, in the countryside and on the islands. I think our people knew very little 5-6 years ago but now, they know very well their labour and social rights."

Her advice to the people who decide to leave and find a job abroad is to get information in advance from the website of the Ministry of Employment. "The mistake all Bulgarians make is that they leave relying only on information from a relative or an acquaintance. When they arrive in the country, they begin looking for a job. Because for the most part they neither know the local nor any other European language, they face many problems. Then, dissatisfaction and complaints come that the embassy does not help them. I can give information on a more complicated case. I can inform the Ministry of Employment or the Greek labour inspection, as has happened often in different situations. We have had successful interventions in recovering the rights of many Bulgarians, in paying their compensations and other similar cases, but it all happens in the regular order. The embassy cannot intervene and take over the functions of local government authorities," she finally said.