The committee will decide whether to approve the proposal to expand the trade unions’ ability to strike. At the same time, it is proposed to give more opportunities to negotiate working conditions for employees earning more than twice the average monthly wage (over 5,000 euros “on paper”).
The proposals allowing deviation from some very strict provisions of the Labor Code will encourage companies to more boldly hire employees who create high added value. However, the proposals to ease the possibility of declaring strikes and to extend the duration of warning strikes send a negative signal to investors.
“The accompanying documents of the amendments openly state that there are too few strikes in Lithuania compared to countries like France. They clearly aim to allow trade unions to disrupt company operations more,” says LLRI president Elena Leontjeva.
The explanatory note expects that after the amendments are adopted, strikes “will have a stronger impact on the employer because the scale of disruption will increase, and the strike will become not only a symbolic act but also a real pressure tool.”
“The question is who could have leaked such anti-state statements to the public, and how it happened that they were not noticed during the legislative review stage and have not yet been removed or corrected,” E. Leontjeva wonders.
“The drafters of the Labor Code amendments claim that in France, Italy, or Belgium, strikes are an effective means to improve employees’ conditions, and that there are too few strikes in Lithuania compared to these countries. However, the numbers show otherwise – in these countries, real employee incomes have grown very slowly over the past decade, and in Italy, they are even lower today than twenty years ago,” said LLRI chief expert Ernestas Einoris.
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According to him, these countries are not the ones we should emulate when shaping labor market policy: “It is important to properly assess the fact that wages in Lithuania have recently grown rapidly not because of strikes or collective bargaining, but thanks to economic growth.”
He states that the Seimas could aim not to encourage conflicts between employees and employers but to enable them to negotiate working conditions more flexibly. A step in this direction is changes for employees earning higher wages.
“Employers and employees will be able to negotiate more freely the conditions for terminating employment contracts – some employees may prefer fewer social guarantees in exchange for a higher salary today,” said LLRI chief expert.
In addition, it is proposed to apply a longer – 6-month probation period for employees receiving higher wages. This will allow companies to more effectively test higher-level employees. The currently allowed 3 months is not enough time to assess whether a well-paid manager or specialist truly meets the expectations set for them.
However, the possibility to negotiate employment contract provisions more freely is envisaged only for a narrow group of employees, so the impact on the country’s competitiveness is likely to be limited.
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