The summer season begins…

Vacation for high school students is approaching and some of them will take the opportunity to earn their first money. While we’ve all experienced the pleasure of our first paycheck, the first experience in the working world often leaves a bitter taste. Not so for the greedy bosses who are already stacking the leagues for the new helping of ‘fresh grub’. They easily present the well-deserved first paycheck as a generous gift. Here’s what a former waitress at a cafe in Varna has to say.

Hello ! You are very young. Was working in the cafe your first job ?

Yes. At least a cafe is run, otherwise they have licenses and sell food, drinks and alcohol.

How did I find this job ?

In Jobs.bg. After a meeting they took me for a day as a trial and at the end of the day one boss said I was up for the job.

Did they pay you for this trial ?

I honestly don’t remember because it was a weekly payment. They gave us cash every week. The payment was a week in arrears. So if you decided to quit without notice, they kept one paycheck.

And the salary, did you negotiate it during the interview?

From the beginning I was supposed to be on 6 leva, and they raised it to 8 leva after a while, but actually it never happened because the one who promised it to me left on sick leave and the next one said he didn’t have that information. I started at the end of May and only worked weekends because I was at school at the time. After the end of the school year, I went all week. But actually even before school ended, after school I went there one or two times. It was a bit out of the ordinary because I told the boss I couldn’t, but he insisted : “now what have you got to study, you’ve got nothing to do there at school!”

So from the beginning, the schedule was floating?

Yes, basically I only had to work Saturdays and Sundays, 12 hours each. But with the concerts at the Summer Theatre, we had to work until later. Instead of 12, it was actually 14 hours. In the beginning it started at 6 bucks an hour, while it was only Saturday and Sunday. I ended up not knowing how much money I was working for because every time my salary was different with the schedules.

Since July when you started working a schedule, how many days a week were you usually on shift?

5 or 6 days. It depends. Usually you have to have 2 days off. The problem is you don’t know when you’re going to have them and if you say you want to take off on a certain date, you’re not sure you’re going to take off then because two bosses make the schedule and they don’t get along. There were basically two full days regularly in the week, sometimes I’ve had three. A full day was 14 hours. Even sometimes 15.

When you stay 15 hours, do they pay you overtime?

No, even actually at the beginning they only paid us for 12, although I’ve sat 14. And if we say something, the boss said that actually one hour is not paid because that’s what our rest is. And actually, there was no lunch break because customers were constantly coming in to eat. I only ate once a day, and he would sometimes scold me because I was sitting down to eat. If there’s a customer during the break, I have to go serve him. The other staff and I couldn’t really understand what our rights were for breaks, what we could eat from the kitchen… A lot of people were unhappy under those conditions. When I was there, at least three people left.

And what was your contract?

In the beginning I had no contract at all. I said I wanted a contract, but they didn’t give it to me until the beginning of July, and it was already written out. Someone had signed it for me. And the salary was the minimum – about 800 leva. But in reality I was getting more.

And the other workers, were they young like you?

Yes, one boy was even very angry because they had hired him without a contract, as a ranger (i.e. a person who cleans and cleans the tables) and they had promised him to be a waiter, but they never did.

Were there fines for being late or other things?

Basically if you don’t wear a uniform, but I never saw it happen.

In any case, fines are absolutely illegal.

There were fines in another cafe next to us. If they left something uncleaned, if they were late, if they didn’t put on a uniform… We were threatened too, but there was no real one.

Were there any inspections, by the labour inspectorate for example?

Yes, one time I found out there was an inspection because the boss sent me to wash the dishes. And basically it was two Roma doing it without a contract. They were paid 4 or 5 leva an hour. One of the dishwashers had told me he had been working there since he was 12 or 13 years old.

When he was on a regular schedule (with over 50 hours a week) top to bottom how much money a month did he get?

Let’s say over a thousand I would have taken. In total for two months, I think I’d picked up about 2000. That includes tips.