In 2009, Bulgaria ratified the ILO Home Work Convention (C177) and Recommendation (R184) – and amended its Labour Code. However, it has not enforced the legislation and according to the trade union, UNITY (TUSIW “Edinstvo”), the government argues that the legislation does not apply to homeworkers because they do not have contracts.

In 2014, WIEGO assisted UNITY in writing a letter to the ILO, setting out its views. This letter is mentioned in the official report of the Committee of Experts, and in 2014, the Committee asked the Government of Bulgaria to respond to Unity’s allegations. The Bulgarian government was obliged to submit its next report on 1 September 2018.

The global trade union movement has been lobbying for an ILO Convention on gender-based violence (GBV) for many years. As a result, the ILO Governing Body at its 325th Session (November 2015) placed a standard-setting item on ‘Violence against women and men in the world of work’ on the agenda of the 2018 International Labour Conference (ILC), as a double discussion.