LAWSUIT AGAINST CEIBG WON AT FIRST INSTANCE
The Sofia City Court has delivered a judgment on the claim brought against the name of the “Confederation of the Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria – the voice of Bulgarian business” (CEIBG).
The claim was deposited in July 2006 by the five nationally representative employers’ organizations – Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, Bulgarian Industrial Association – UNION OF THE BULGARIAN BUSINESS, Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bulgarian Union of Private Entrepreneurs – VAZRAZDANE and Union of Private Enterprises.
The Court has delivered a ruling by which it is accepted as established with regards to the defendant (CEIBG) that the name of the association misleads due to which it contradicts the provisions of art. 7, para 2 of the Law on Nonprofit Legal Entities (LNPLE).
MOTIVES OF THE COURT:
1. The thus made entry misleads due to which it contradicts to the provisions set in the imperative regulations of art. 7, para 2 of the LNPLE. This is so because the concept “confederation” is not a simple union but a union of associations of the same kind, like the one of the confederation.
2. According to art. 5 of ILO Convention No 7 about the syndicate freedom and protection of the right of a syndicate organization, ratified by Decree No 111/59 (State Gazette No 35/97), the employees’ and employers’ organizations have the right to set up federations and confederations. The Convention, which is a part of our domestic legislation, defines the confederation as a union of employers’ organizations, and not a union of employers and physical persons what the CEIBG is in fact. This circumstance has been also acknowledged by the defendant (the CEIBG membership involves also individual employers, and not only associations of employers).
3. Referring to the wording of the thus registered name, it can be concluded that the respective association is the only representative of the employers in Bulgaria, which is indisputably not true and which misleads the representatives of the business in and out of the country. This will further harm the interests of the claimants who also represent associations of employers, and causes uncertainty regarding their status as equal in rights participants and stakeholders in the social dialogue and their right to represent the employers on national and international level.
4. The name creating the impression that the defendant is the only employers’ organization contradicts to the acting regulatory framework which provides for the possibility of having in the country more than one organization of the employers.
With a view to the above stated the Court has accepted that the claim lodged is lawful and has to be respected together with the legal consequences. On the authority of the provisions in art. 64 of the Civil Procedure Code the defendant shall be sentenced to pay to the claimants the costs under the case made by them.
The ruling can be appealed before the Sofia Appellate Court within a 14-days term upon notification of the parties about it.
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We remind that on 3 July 2006 five of the six nationally representative organizations of the employers filed with the Sofia City Court a statement of claim against the recording of an organization named “Confederation of the Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria – CEIBG, the voice of Bulgarian business” into the register for the non-profit legal entities.
It has been specified in the statement of claim that the name is incorrect and it misleads governmental, regional and local bodies and authorities, international institutions, employers’ organizations, foreign investors, as well as the Bulgarian enterprises. It creates doubts about the right of the five nationally acknowledged employers’ organizations to represent the interests of the employers and industrialists which endangers their business contacts in the sense of art. 7, para 2 of the LNPLE and the decision for the registration is incorrect being in contradiction with the law.
The main arguments of the claimants against the registration of CEIBG are as follows:
1. The association is defined as a confederation, but referring to the Statute, it has not been set up on a confederation principle;
2. The suffix “te” used in the wording of the Bulgarian name, in the words “the employers” and “the industrialists” (Bulgarian suffix “te” = English definite article “the”), presupposes the participation in the association of all employers and industrialists in the country without any exception, which does not comply with the real situation of the membership of the association.
3. The word “the employers” in the name suggests an idea that the association is the only nationally recognized organization of the employers in the country, which does not correspond the actual situation either and it is in contradiction with the regulatory acts. The current legal system provides for more than one organization of the employers while the name in question presumes one and only organization.
4. The word group “The voice of Bulgarian business” is a modification of the motto of the Union of the Industrialists’ and Employers Confederations in Europe (UNICE), which reads “The Voice of Business in Europe”. The use of the Bulgarian analogue of this motto in the name misleads that the CEIBG is a member of UNICE, moreover - the only one of the Bulgarian employers’ organizations. This fact does not conform to the truth either since the only Bulgarian employers’ organization, member of UNICE, is the Bulgarian Industrial Association.
