Industrial action and disputes in Latvia

The right to strike and the procedure for striking is established in the Strike Law. Two amendments were introduced in 2019: Chapter VIII, on administrative violations in the field of the right to strike and competence in administrative violation proceedings, was introduced, and, in connection with this, Section 19(3), item 4) establishing the VDI’s right to administratively punish guilty people for violations of regulatory enactments was removed.

The Labour Dispute Law regulates the procedure for the resolution of labour disputes prior to strikes or, if disputes are unresolved, the justification of strikes. The law was not changed in 2022.

The Strike Law defines a strike (streiks) as a means of resolving a collective interest dispute that manifests itself as employees or a group of employees in a branch of an undertaking voluntarily, completely or in part, discontinuing work to attain the fulfilment of their demands.

Employees have the right to strike to protect their economic or professional interests. The right to strike should be exercised as a last resort if no agreement has been reached in a collective interest dispute. Participation in a strike must be voluntary.

Judges, prosecutors, members of the police, fire protection workers, firefighters and rescue service employees, border guards, members of the state security service, warders and people who serve in the National Armed Forces are all prohibited from striking.

Other legal types of industrial action are labour disputes (darba strīds) and dispute resolution mechanisms and lockouts (lokauts) (governed by the Labour Dispute Law). Trade unions may also call for protest actions such as meetings (mītiņš), pickets (pikets) and demonstrations (demonstrācija) (regulated by the law on meetings, pickets and demonstrations, adopted on 16 January 1997).

Amendments to the law on meetings, pickets and demonstrations in 2022 introduced new regulations aimed at limiting the political purposes of meetings, pickets and demonstrations. The law prohibits the use of these measures for the purposes of organisations whose activity in Latvia is prohibited or related to the promotion or glorification of events based on the ideology of Nazi or communist regimes.

Strikes are rare in Latvia. Still, according to International Labour Organization (ILO) data, in 2017 there were 15 strikes and lockouts. According to the same source, there were no strikes and lockouts in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. More detailed information was not found in either ILO statistics or data from the European Company Survey 2019.

National statistics on industrial action are not published in Latvia. CSP may provide data on request from its survey of economically active commercial companies, individual merchants, peasant or fisherman farms, budgetary institutions, foundations or funds as well as administrative data. These data are submitted to the ILO and published in an ILO dataset. Data for 2022 were not found in the relevant ILO dataset.

Based on local media reporting in 2022, several industrial actions occurred. In the education sector, for example, more than 3,000 pedagogical workers picketed the Parliament of Latvia on 16 June 2022. Pedagogical workers demanded a halt to the introduction of a new teachers’ salary model, the balancing of teachers’ workloads, and the fair distribution of the salary funds across municipalities, so that teachers from municipalities with an already established network of schools do not suffer. The medical union LVSADA held two 2-day warning strikes and protest actions near the office of the Cabinet of Ministers on 27 July and 7 September 2022. The main demand of the doctors was a 10% salary increase.

Collective dispute resolution mechanisms

The general principles of dispute resolution mechanisms are set out in the Labour Law.

Depending on the object of a dispute and the people involved, labour disputes are divided into individual disputes regarding rights, collective disputes regarding rights and collective disputes regarding interests.

In settling individual and collective disputes regarding rights, the Labour Law and the Civil Procedure Law are applied. In settling collective disputes regarding interests, the Labour Law and the Strike Law are applied.

Collective dispute resolution mechanisms are regulated in detail by the Labour Dispute Law (Sections 9–21). The law distinguishes between collective disputes regarding rights and collective disputes regarding interests. The Labour Law regulates the resolution of disputes regarding collective agreements.

A collective dispute regarding rights is a difference of opinion between the parties involved that arises when concluding, altering, terminating or fulfilling an employment contract, or in applying or interpreting provisions of regulatory enactments, provisions of a collective labour contract or working procedure regulations.

A collective dispute regarding interests is a difference of opinion between the parties involved that arises in relation to collective negotiation procedures determining new working conditions or employment provisions.

In both cases, the first step is making a submission in writing to the other party, setting out the demands being made. If the reply is negative or there is no reply, a collective dispute regarding rights should be settled through a conciliation commission. Any party to a collective dispute regarding rights has the right to apply to the courts if it is not settled through the conciliation commission. If parties agree in writing, a collective dispute regarding rights may be transferred to an arbitration court for settlement.

Individual dispute resolution mechanisms

The Labour Law states that individual disputes regarding rights between an employee and an employer, if not settled within an undertaking, should be settled in court.

The Labour Dispute Law defines an individual dispute regarding rights as a difference of opinion between an employee or group of employees and an employer arising when concluding, altering, terminating or fulfilling an employment contract, and when applying or interpreting the provisions of regulatory enactments, the provisions of a collective labour contract or working procedure regulations.

Individual disputes regarding rights in an undertaking should be settled as far as possible through negotiations between the employee and the employer.

If an agreement between the employee and the employer is not reached in negotiations, the employer and the employee representatives have to agree in writing about establishing a labour dispute commission. The employer and the employee representatives may also agree to apply other procedures to settle the dispute.

Any party to an individual dispute regarding rights has the right to apply to the courts if it is not settled through negotiations between the employee and the employer, or if any of the parties is not satisfied with the decision of the labour dispute commission.

Trade unions have the right to represent their members without special authorisation in the settlement of individual disputes regarding rights and to bring an action to court in the interests of their members.

Use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms

There are no labour courts in Latvia. Labour disputes are settled by the ordinary court. No data are available on how often alternative forms of dispute resolution are used compared with the dispute resolution procedures taking place in court.

In 2018, the VDI conducted research on effective methods of labour dispute resolution in Latvia (Baltic Institute of Social Sciences, 2018). The resulting report provides statistics on some aspects of dispute resolution procedures for 2017. Statistical data and the authors’ calculations are based on applications to the court and complaints to the VDI. For 2017–2021, data are available on the number of cases reviewed by the VDI on labour rights issues. They do not specify whether these submissions are labour disputes or consultations.

Use of dispute resolution mechanisms, 2017–2022

Note: n.a., not available.

Sources: 2017: the VDI and the court’s information system, as reported in Baltic Institute of Social Sciences (2018); 2018–2022: the VDI’s annual reports on the submissions reviewed on labour rights issues