Work experience is extremely important from several different perspectives. It is not only a way to show and prove different skills in a given field as a result of hours spent providing services or skills related to a specific activity.
The truth is that official work experience is also related to the calculation of seniority for retirement, which means that a person’s seniority determines the pension they will receive over time.
At the same time, it is related to opportunities related to employee benefits and rights during work and after termination of employment.
In this article, we will look at several important elements on the subject. We’ll look at what work experience is, how it is calculated, why filling out an employment record is important, and more.
What is work experience?
Although most people are vaguely familiar with the concept of work experience, the truth is that not many of them realize what exactly the term means.
Work experience or the length of service, from the point of view of the law and in the sense of the Labor Code, is the time during which an employee has performed work under an employment relationship. It also represents the time during which the employee or worker has worked as a public servant, performed a public service or performed work under another country’s laws.
When it comes to other countries, length of service includes the time spent in employment under the laws of an EU member state, in another country – a party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, or in the Swiss Confederation, as well as the time spent in a position in an institution of the European Union, certified by a document for the establishment and termination of the legal relationship.
How work experience is calculated
But what if you need to find the work experience or length of service of a certain individual? How can work experience be proven?
The work experience in Bulgaria is recorded and certified in a workbook or employment record. This book is an official certification document that is used to record the labor activity of the worker or employee.
When starting a new job, the employee is obliged to provide his employment record to the employer, who, in turn, records the employment. It is important to note that if the employee has not worked before and does not have an employment record, the employer is obliged to provide an employment record within five calendar days. At the same time, entering work for the first time is certified by the employee through a written declaration.
Calculation of work experience
One of the most popular questions on the subject is the calculation of length of service. How does the procedure for calculating length of service work?
Each calculation of work experience is carried out in accordance with the Labor Code and employment record laws. Employment length of service is calculated in days, months and years, where one day of work is considered the time during which the employee has worked at least half of the legally established working hours. This time may have been spent working for one or more employment relationships.
A working month is considered complete when all working days in the month have been completed. In the event that fewer than the number of working days in the respective month are worked in a month, the length of service is considered to be the number of months that are obtained when the total number of worked days in these months is divided by 21 (this applies to a five-day working weeks) or 25 (valid for a six-day work week). In this calculation, the credited full months are also added to the overall work experience.
Under this method of calculation, one year of service is added in the employment record when 12 months of service are completed.
Calculation of work experience in case of part-time work
But what if the employee is working part-time? How is work experience calculated in cases of part-time work?
It’s important to note that some employers mistakenly fail to include the full length of service if the working hours are 4 hours per day. Let’s not forget that one working day is considered to be the time in which at least half of the legally established working hours for the relevant position or workplace is worked. If full working days are worked in the month of a 4-hour working day, the period will be counted as a full month of work experience.
Work experience on a civil contract
In many cases, people who work on a civilian contract offer freelance work. These are mostly freelancers, with the most common professions in this field being writers, dancers, translators, and others.
In most situations, the laws and rules of procurement and procurement contracts are used primarily over the Law of Obligations and Contracts. The activities performed under a civil contract do not affect the length of service, even during maternity leave. Work under a civil contract or freelance work only affects the insurance period, which is a completely separate topic.
How do they calculate length of service from NIS?
It is also worth looking at the procedure for calculating the length of service of the National Insurance Institute.
The length of service in the National Insurance Institute is calculated using the subtraction method. In other words, length of service is calculated in calendar days, based on the fact that a month has an average of 30 calendar days. This creates some discrepancies in the calculation of work experience in NIS when compared to that of accounting firms or employers.
This is because each month has 21 working days in a five-day working week and 25 working days in a six-day working week, but never 30 days.
Is maternity leave included in length of service?
Among the popular questions on the subject of work experience is “is maternity considered work experience?”. In short – yes, maternity leave is considered work experience. This is because the law states that paid vacations and unpaid vacations established in the Labor Code or through other regulations are considered to be work experience for the employee, regardless of their basis.
Other situations recognized as work experience
There are also other situations to be recognized as length of service:
- Use of paid or unpaid leaves, regardless of their reason, as long as they are established by the Labor Code or other normative acts;
- Weekends and holidays;
- Time devoted to courses, education and other professional qualifications;
- Used unpaid leave for periods of incapacity for work or adoption of a child up to the age of five;
- Periods in which the employee did not work due to incorrect absence from work;
- The time of suspension from work as a result of a committed work-related crime, in the event that the employee is not charged as a defendant according to the relevant order;
- The time of suspension from work if the worker and employee was brought as an accused but was acquitted or the criminal prosecution was terminated.
We hope that this information will answer your questions about calculating seniority. As experienced professionals, the team of MKAFinance are here to offer help and support when it comes to calculating your length of service.
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