On 15 June, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė promulgated the new version of the country’s labour code, which is geared towards creating greater flexibility in the labour market and attracting investment. The code, voted on by the parliament (Seimas) on 6 June, contains the vast majority of provisions that were adopted by the tripartite social consultation body (see article n°10250). The new labour code will come into force on 1 July 2017.
A difficult beginning. The parliament had adopted a first version of the code in June 2016, but president Dalia Grybauskaitė used her right to veto, in the belief that the new version was too quickly approved and created an imbalanced relationship between employers and workers. The country’s parliament proceeded to vote in favour of the new labour code in September, with its entry into force scheduled for 1 January 2017 (see article n°9825). However, the defeat of prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius’ social-democrat party in October last year has often been attributed to tensions surrounding the labour code.
Do you have information to share with us?