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

140
Unpaid overtime is more typical for women than for men: in Latvia, 58 % of
the women doing overtime and 41 % of the men received no compensation for
it. In Lithuania, the situation of the women is still less advantageous, because
as many as 73 % of the women who worked overtime did not receive any
overtime compensation. Also a majority (54 %) of the men doing overtime did
it without compensation. It is surprising that different overtime pay combinations,
or overtime that was partly compensated and partly uncompensated,
were actually non-existent in both countries. In other words, the practices concerning
overtime compensation are very polarised: overtime is either compensated
in a certain way, or else not compensated at all. In practice, there are no
’mixed methods’ or partly compensated and partly uncompensated overtime.
The questionnaire form for Estonia 3 differed in this question from that for the
other Baltic countries, so that the Estonians cannot quite be compared directly
with the Latvians and Lithuanians in this respect. Also in Estonia, however, a
considerable number (10 %) of the working people said that unpaid overtime
was part of the normal working week. The percentage is exactly the same as in
1998. As in Latvia, it is most typical in Estonia to do unpaid overtime in small
private sector workplaces. 15 % of people working in small private sector
firms (less than 10 employees) work unpaid overtime during a normal working
week.
Of those working overtime, more than a third (35 %) did it without compensation.
This percentage has risen a little because, while the proportion of wage
earners doing overtime has fallen slightly, the working of unpaid overtime (as
well as that compensated in the form of time off) is just as common as before.
Overtime work compensated only in money has decreased in Estonia.
3 On the form for Estonia, it was only possible to select one alternative from the following: overtime
compensated in money, compensated in time off, or not compensated at all. There was therefore no
opportunity to examine different combinations of these three alternatives.