Employees’ attitudes towards working time regulations

In March 2006, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute published results of a research project on the attitudes of employees towards working time regulations which it carried out in 2005. The research aimed to show how employees evaluated issues such as relations between employers and employees, the regulation of working time, overtime pay and violations of the Labour Code. One of the main findings suggests that a third of people employed in Lithuania believe that regulating working hours restricts their ability to work longer hours for extra pay.

In late 2005, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (Lietuvos laisvosios rinkos institutas, LLRI) carried out a ‘Survey of employees’ attitudes’ focusing on the views of employees towards a variety of issues concerning employment relations. The research aimed to determine how employees evaluated relations with employers, the regulation of working time and remuneration levels for extra hours worked outside the legal weekly working hours. It also looked at the attitudes of workers towards breaches of labour law in Lithuania. Results of the study were presented in March 2006.

Research methodology

The research was based on a questionnaire survey completed by 1,093 permanent residents of the country aged between 16 and 74 years. The respondents were chosen according to a representative sample taking into account the distribution of the Lithuanian population by place of residence, age, sex and level of education.

The survey was carried out using an Omnibus methodology, and only the responses of those in employment were taken into consideration. For the purpose of this survey, employed people are understood as those who have an employment contract, public servants, and those who have been previously employed a year or more ago while not being employed at the time of the survey.

Working time regulations

Working time in Lithuania is stipulated by the Labour Code and related legislation. In accordance with the Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania, working hours must not exceed eight hours per day. Those employed by more than one employer at a time, as well as those holding more than one employment contract simultaneously, cannot legally work more than 12 hours per day or 48 hours per week.

Violations of employment law

The survey findings reveal that approximately half (53.3%) of the respondents believe that there were no violations of employment law at their respective workplaces. In terms of workers aged between 16 and 24 years, 32.7% of them recognise violations of employment law at their place of work. On the other hand, 67% of workers close to retirement age (aged 55–64 years) tend to think there are no violations of employment law at their place of employment. Up to 77.5% of public servants report that there are no obvious violations of employment law where they work.

Respondents most frequently cited the following violations of employment law: failure to adhere to employment rules and having to work extra hours with no additional pay. Both of these answers were given by approximately a quarter of the survey respondents.

Figure 1: Most frequent violations of employment regulations reported by respondents (%)

Note: It was possible to choose more than one option in the answer.

Source: Free Market Institute of Lithuania, 2006

Breach of working hours

Respondents of the youngest age group particularly emphasised breaches of the legally prescribed working hours, with 43.2% of those aged 16–24 years putting forward this complaint. The survey results show that problems relating to working hours are more prevalent among those employed by private companies, i.e. 28.6% of private sector employees reported that they encountered problems with the amount of hours worked.

According to the research, every third employee in Lithuania reports working extra hours without being paid accordingly (see Figure 2). Similar numbers of those employed in public sector institutions and those employed in private sector companies confirmed that they work extra hours (34.3% and 34.9% respectively).

Figure 2: Reponses to statements on regulation of working hours (%)

Source: Free Market Institute of Lithuania, 2006

Importance of regulating working hours

The survey reveals that four out of five employed residents of Lithuania (80.8%) would agree to work more hours if they were to be paid accordingly.

As many as 59.6% of employed persons in Lithuania do not consider regulating working hours to be highly important because they will still work the hours negotiated with their employers, even if it means breaching the Labour Code. More than a third (37.3%) of respondents believe that regulating working hours restricts their ability to work as many hours as they can negotiate with their employers; some 58.7% of workers however object to this statement.

The respondents were also asked if they thought their employers would request them to work longer hours if there were no restrictions on working hours. More than half of the respondents (54.1%) stated that their employers would not force them to work longer, while 41.3% believed that they would probably have to work longer hours.

Rasa Zabarauskaite, Institute of Labour and Social Research