Fatality at Poultry Farm Uncovers Workers without Employment Contracts

An occupational fatality has caused the Chief Labor Inspectorate to probe a poultry farm in the northwestern village of Virove for workers without employment contracts.

On August 14, a woman aged 43 was stricken by an electric shock while cleaning the poultry farm "Gala Virove" with a pressure washer, according to reports of Sega daily.

The poultry farm is owned by Gala Chicken Farm EOOD.

According to Trud daily, the company is owned by Dimitar Avramov, former MP of center-right party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) in 2012 due to trading in influence.

Labor inspectors found that the woman and her husband, who also worked at the site, had not signed written employment contracts.

There were other people on the site who were believed to have had no written employment contracts prior to the incident.

The ongoing probe is to establish whether there were other people at the poultry farm who engaged in undeclared work.

Workers without written employment contracts are deprived of their social and labor rights and the violation, which is why Bulgarian law envisages a serious penalty of a fine of BGN 1500 – 15 000 per each of the cases.

Gala Chicken Farm EOOD underwent an inspection in November 2013 and the labor inspectors uncovered several violations during the probe.