The Cabinet approved amendments to the Civil Servants Act, which envision that at least one per cent of the employees of administrative offices with more than 26 staff members have to be people with permanent disabilities.

The changes aim to encourage the employment of people with permanent disabilities to the state administration, the State Administration Ministry said in a statement on August 28. Administration offices with less than 25 employees are not obliged to recruit people with disabilities whatsoever, as according to the ministry this would be a too high number.

The ministry would use two ways to recruit disabled staff. The first is a centralised competition only for people with disabilities organised by the ministry and the Institute of Public Administration and European Integration, which would take place at least once a year. The second option will be through separate competitions, which will be set by the administration that needs the new staff. Those competitions will also be only for disabled members of the society and would be organised at least four times a year until the vacant positions are occupied.

Paid annual leave for employees with permanent disabilities was also changed with the new amendments and is now 26 days a year, compared to the 20 days that non-disabled employees get.

State Administration Minister Nikolai Vassilev will be in charge of checking recruitment of people with permanent disabilities. By law, the responsible state body will be fined from 2000 to 5000 leva in case of violations.

With the amendments to the Civil Servants Act, the recruitment bodies are obliged to provide free access for people with disabilities to the administration buildings and adapting the working space for their needs.