Working Life Barometer in the Baltic Countries 2002 (pdf) - mol.fi

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been very significant in the women's case. In 1998, women working in the private
sector in Lithuania were working on average about five hours less per
week than in 2002! This change that has taken place is difficult to explain. It is
not due to working in two jobs, for example - because, of the private-sector
women working long weekly hours, only one in ten works in another job besides
her main one.
The longest working weeks of all among the women in Lithuania are in the
hotel and restaurant business (an average of 51.6 hours) and in trade (average
50.4 hours). These fields headed the list of working week lengths also in the
previous survey in 1998. This lengthening in women's working weeks cannot,
nevertheless, be explained conclusively by the long - longer than before -
working weeks in these fields. The number of hours worked per week by
women in Lithuania has lengthened in all branches of business in the private
sector.
WORKING OVERTIME
The clearly longer working weeks in Latvia and Lithuania compared with Estonia
could be seen also when about overtime work was enquired about. Of the
working people in Latvia and Lithuania, as many as 39 % said that working
overtime was part of the normal working week; in Estonia, just over onequarter
(28 %) felt similarly. It can be concluded that although - especially in
the private sector - long working weeks are very common in Latvia and
Lithuania, employees do not consider the large numbers of hours to be ’normal’,
i.e. to be in conformity to the contracts and thus acceptable. Long
working days are seen as overtime. If this is the case, then the working hours
stipulated in the employment contracts are not adhered to very well.
The fact that the men work longer weekly hours than women can be seen
clearly from the amount of overtime. In Latvia and Lithuania, 43 % of all the
male wage earners stated that overtime was part of the typical working week.
The similarity between the countries as regards the generality of overtime
work is confirmed by the women's data. Of the women in Latvia and Lithuania,
over one-third did overtime during a normal working week. The proportions
of both men and women working overtime are clearly greater than in
Estonia.