VOUCHERS

THE VOUCHERS: A SERVICE BENEFICIAL FOR ALL,
or the “meal vouchers” and what do we mean by that?

The British scientist Dr. John Hawk claims to have invented in 1954 the meal voucher system – the Western alternative of the socialist era ‘coupons’. The modern version of this mechanism, however, was introduced in France in the seventies of the 20th century. At present some 20 million around Europe enjoy this service. Dining at the so called ‘ticket restaurants’ is a common practice in 30 countries all over the world, including China, India, USA, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay. The system is widely spread in France, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Sweden. Recently it was also introduced in some former socialist countries like Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania. The system is being constantly developed and up-graded. Initially it was designed to provide mainly restaurant meals and purchase of foodstuffs, but nowadays the meal voucher operators offer a variety of services like catering, dry cleaning, working clothes, fitness and sports activities, baby sitting, home maintenance services, cultural events, organization of recreational activities and holiday trips, etc.

Why is this system so popular?
The reason for the great popularity of this type of mutual payments is that the system is beneficial to everyone - the worker, the employer, and the state. Its application allows convenience and transparency of every individual procedure, but also guarantees the proper use of funds assigned to achieve certain objectives and satisfy the employees’ demands. A number of studies held by the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization proved that an increase of just 1% of the energetic content of the food taken during the lunch break resulted in a 2.27% rise of the efficiency of labour. With the date of our country’s admission into the European Union approaching, the workers’ social gains would inevitably constitute an ever increasing part of the worker-employer relationship. Therefore, the introduction of the ‘meal vouchers’ system would be only the first step in a series towards meeting these new challenges.

When using the system, the employer is relieved of paying the final tax on an amount of 40 Bulgarian Leva and may use the VAT paid for the vouchers. The easy and convenient procedures assist the employer in reducing his administrative expenses, and meanwhile inciting the employees and motivating their loyalty by providing solutions to their essential needs. All the payments among the parties involved (except for the staff) are made by bank transfers, and that in itself is a way to ‘bring into the open’ more corporate turnovers.

The commercial facilities which have signed a contract with the respective operator provide themselves an extra flow of patrons to guarantee stable additional monthly revenues. The payment mode ensures a high level of reliability and regular inflow of funds. The research studies, conducted in those countries where the system is common, indicate that the commercial turnover at the points of sale which have such contracts show an average increase of 20 to 30%.

The voucher dining is one of the solutions which may be employed by the management teams to harmonize the employees’ personal preferences and the companies’ high requirements.

In conclusion, practicing the ‘meal vouchers’ system is a long-lasting tradition not only in the highly developed European countries, but is already becoming increasingly popular in the former socialist countries, as well. And Bulgaria has always been an integral part of Europe.