Corporate Social Responsibility Development

I6.1. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DEVELOPMENT

The impetus for the development of CSR in Bulgaria was basically given by multinational companies operating in the country and through EU funded projects, which contributed to the transfer of experiences in this field. The relevance of CSR in Bulgaria seems to be to a large extent related to the fulfilment of standards required for being accepted by the European business community and for gaining access to European markets.25 In the course of their transformation, Bulgarian companies have been systematically exposed to the influence of the global CSR trend – partly through specialized international institutions that target ethical business practices, such as International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) or the UN Global Compact, and partly through multinational companies operating in Bulgaria that provide good examples on how to be socially responsible in a new market environment.

At present, more than 2200 companies are holders of the ISO 9000 certification. Most of them come from construction sector.

ISO 9000 number of certified Bulgarian companies during the years:

1994 1

1995 4

1996 10

1997 42

1998 82

1999 127

2000 259

2001 451

2002 637

2003 883

2004 1129

Present

Source: Club 9000; http://www.club9000.org/en/

2233

In July 2006, the first national conference on corporate social responsibility (CSR) was held in Bulgaria. It was organized by the National Round Table on the Implementation of Social Standards, which was established in 2004 to encourage the implementation of and compliance with social standards in enterprises (initially in the textiles and clothing sector). The conference titled ‘How to integrate CSR into business' was held under the auspices of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, funded by the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and organised by the German Technical Cooperation Association (GTZ). The EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Špidla, also attended the conference. The main objective of the event was to raise public awareness on the importance of CSR and to encourage more companies to voluntarily implement the requirements of international corporate standards and social responsibility specifications. At the conference, the ‘Socially responsible company of the year' award was presented for the first time. The national award for socially responsible companies is an annual competition for SMEs and large companies operating in Bulgaria that are willing to adopt a CSR concept that takes into account their employees, business partners and the local community. Internal aspects of the company that are taken into consideration in the selection process include: human resource management; health and safety employees and working conditions; adaptation to and management of change; and impact on environment and natural resources. External factors include the local social environment, business partners, suppliers and customers, human rights and the environment. The competition is organised by the National Round Table on the Implementation of Social Standards in cooperation with governmental institutions, including the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP), the Bulgarian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA) and the General Labour Inspectorate (GLI)

The conference results show that a variety of factors hamper the implementation of the European social model and the improvement of competitiveness in Bulgarian companies. The international social accountability standard SA8000 is still not widely known in the country's labour market and only few firms invest in working conditions and the environment. The main conclusion of the conference discussions was that efforts should increasingly focus on establishing a legal framework that promotes a more appropriate environment for the development of socially responsible practices.

6.1.1. Health and Safety at Workplace

Working conditions in Bulgaria became a huge topic again in January 2006, when two women, collapsed and died at an Italian-owned shoe-making factory, outside the capital. In 2005, the Bulgarian National Labour Inspectorate reported 200,000 workplace violations in 35,000 Bulgarian and foreign companies,