ABSTRACT
This chapter looks briefly at the history of benefits in the communist era and then examines the benefits available to industrial employees three years into the transition. The transition process begun in many countries in 1989 is bound to have a profound effect on the quantity and quality of many goods and services formerly offered by the workplace. Firms in Yugoslavia, although following a much more market oriented development that was thought by some to be a potential model for the East-Bloc countries, were similar to Bulgarian firms in the number of employee services provided for by the firm. When price liberalization came to Bulgaria, the desire to stop a wage-price spiral led to the creation of a tripartite arrangement at the national level to develop a tax-based incomes policies. Workers in Bulgarian firms before the transition were in many cases offered a broad range of benefits from their firms.
