Social partners agree on development of social partnership over 2005-6

In January 2005, at a meeting of the Tripartite Council of the Republic of Lithuania, the social partners and government approved a plan for the development of social partnership over 2005-6.

Since 2002, in order to facilitate the development of social partnership in Lithuania, the government an social partners have been drawing up and signing 'measures plans for the development of social partnership' in the Tripartite Council of the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublikos Trišalė taryba, LRTT) (LT0502104F). Such plans were signed and basically fulfilled for the period from 2003 to 2004. On October 2004, the social partners and government considered and drafted the 'measures plan for the development of social partnership among the government of the Republic of Lithuania, trade unions and employers’ organisations in 2005-6', which was approved at the sitting of the LRTT held on 25 January 2005.

On 25 May 2005, at a conference to commemorate the 10th anniversary of LRTT’s activity, it is planned to sign an 'Agreement of the government, trade unions and employers’ organisations on further tripartite cooperation'. Other measures for the development of socials partnership provided for in the 2005-6 plan fall into the following major categories:

• facilitating social dialogue at territorial and sectoral levels;

• facilitating collective bargaining and the conclusion of collective agreements at enterprise level; and

• information and education of the social partners.

In order to facilitate the social dialogue at territorial and sectoral level, the plan provides for drawing up a regulation on collective bargaining, the conclusion, registration and implementation of collective agreements, and tripartite cooperation at county, municipal and sectoral level. This regulation is to be considered and approved by the LRTT. The plan also provides for the regular organisation of consultative meetings involving representatives of employers’ organisations and trade union organisations on issues relating to sectoral collective agreements, and for the organisation of conferences, seminars and training for the representatives of sectoral and territorial employers’ and employees’ organisations on bargaining, information and consultation, conclusion of collective agreements, and other issues relating to social cooperation.

In order to facilitate collective bargaining and the conclusion of collective agreements in Lithuanian companies, the plan provides for an analysis of problems relating to the conclusion of collective agreements in industrial and services firms and state and municipal authorities and institutions. It also stipulates the preparation of proposals for the resolution of these problems, and the organisation of seminars to share good practices, round-table discussions etc.

With a view to developing the information and education of the social partners, the plan provides for: support for the training, reskilling and improvement of qualifications of social partner representatives; the publication of educational tools for the social partners; and training for lawyers at social partners' organisations on labour law issues, the interpretation and application of EU Directives in the field of labour law etc. The social partners plan to make use of all available media to achieve their goals, for example: publishing comprehensive information on the activities of the LRTT and other specialised tripartite councils and commissions in Lithuania on the web pages of the LRTT and the European Economic and Social Committee; broadcasting programmes on social partnership on Lithuanian radio and TV; and publishing educational articles on social partnership in the Lithuanian press.