Collective agreement in agricultural sector

The single currently valid collective agreement in Lithuania was signed in the agricultural sector in June 2005 by the Lithuanian Association of Agricultural Companies and the Trade Union Federation of Lithuanian Agricultural Workers. The agreement was registered in accordance with the valid legislation.

On 1 January 2003, a basic law governing labour relations came into force in Lithuania – the Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania. According to the Labour Code, ‘a national, sectoral and regional agreement shall enter into force from the day of its registration’. Following the currently valid procedure, national, sectoral and regional collective agreements shall be registered by the Ministry of Social Security and Labour (Socialines apsaugos ir darbo ministerija, SADM).

So far, only one collective agreement has been registered with SADM, namely that negotiated in the agricultural sector. This agreement was signed on 4 June 2005 by the Lithuanian Association of Agricultural Companies (Lietuvos žemes ukio bendroviu asociacija, LŽUBA) and the Trade Union Federation of Lithuanian Agricultural Workers (Lietuvos žemes ukio darbuotoju profesiniu sajungu federacija, LŽUDPSF).

Content of agreement

The collective agreement of the agricultural sector consists of seven chapters:

1. General provisions

2. Procedure for entering into, amending and terminating employment contracts

3. Organisation of remuneration for work

4. Working and rest time

5. Health and safety of employees

6. Guarantees of staff activities in an enterprise

7. Limits of liability.

The key objective of the signing of the agreement, as defined in its text, is ‘to ensure well-proportioned activities of agricultural companies, to improve economic conditions for the development of agricultural companies, to ensure social and economic rights and employment of workers of agricultural companies, as well as to come to terms of additional social guarantees’.

The first chapter stipulates that the agreement is a fixed-term agreement: it shall be valid for a period of two years from the date of its coming into effect. The agreement shall apply in enterprises where the employers were members of LŽUBA at the time of signing the agreement and/or joined LŽUBA after the agreement was signed. The agreement sets forth that strikes shall be prohibited within the period of validity of the agreement if the parties comply with the agreement’s terms and conditions.

The second chapter of the agreement regulates the procedure for entering into, amending and terminating employment contracts. The chapter focuses on the conditions and procedure of employment, as well as forms and types of employment contracts. It also defines the terms and conditions of dismissing worker representatives and other employees from work.

The third chapter discusses the organisation of remuneration for work in the sector. It briefly reiterates provisions defined in the valid legislation in respect of the organisation of remuneration for work, indexation of minimum wages, additional conditions of remuneration for work, and pay on rest days and holidays.

The fourth chapter regulates the working and rest time of agricultural workers. It discusses the definition and length of working time and stipulates the conditions for introducing cumulative accounting of working time. It further regulates the length of statutory annual leave, as well as the conditions and length of additional annual and unpaid leave.

The fifth chapter is intended to regulate health and safety of the employees. It sets out the employer’s obligations in relation to working conditions as well as employees’ obligations to adhere to the requirements of safety at work, and the actions to be taken in the case of accidents at work.

The sixth chapter sets out the guarantees of staff activities in enterprises. It covers the items likely to be contained in enterprise collective agreements and discusses other aspects of mutual relations between employer and employee representatives.

The seventh chapter deals with the limits of liability of employers, individual employees and their groups.

Commentary

The provisions laid down in the collective agreement of the agricultural sector essentially reiterate the provisions of the valid regulations, and this agreement contains no specific obligations of the parties or provisions improving employees’ working conditions. Nevertheless, the very fact of signing such an agreement is significant. According to representatives of the signatory trade unions, organisations operating in the agricultural sector in most cases do not assume the role of an employer in the sector, because this function is normally not stipulated in the statutes of their organisations.

The main reason that employers accepted the role and responsibilities of an employer in the sector this time is based on the long-term collaboration between the social partners. The first agreements between the current signatory parties were signed as far back as the beginning of the 1990s. In subsequent agreements, parties declared that they recognised each other as partners and signed several agreements regarding the minimum wage, working time and other matters. Thus, the current agreement is an outcome of sustained bipartite collaboration between the parties.

Inga Blažiene, Institute of Labour and Social Research