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

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portion of permanent working relationships in Latvia was lower than in Estonia
and Lithuania, and the development in recent years has increased this gulf
still further. More wage earners than before are either in a fixed-term employment
relationship, or else under an orally agreed employment contract -
this procedure is against the law in Latvia also. On the basis of the research
data, one out of ten employees in Latvia does not have a written employment
contract. This proportion is double that of Estonia and Lithuania. In the aspect
of working hours and employment relationships, working life in Latvia appears
to be somewhat problematic - especially in the private sector, where
only half (51 %) of the wage earners have a permanent job with a written contract.
Long working hours, however, do not have any connection with the type
of employment contract, since a long day is worked in the private sector irrespective
of the form of the contract.
Lithuania is positioned between Estonia and Latvia as regards trends in employment
relationships. The percentage of permanent working relationships
under written contract has not changed: it is still 63 %. The proportion of
fixed-term jobs under written contract has grown to reach that of Latvia, but at
the same time the percentage of illegitimate, orally agreed employment relationships
has similarly decreased and, in fact, still more clearly than in Estonia.
In Lithuania, as in Latvia, permanent jobs under written contract are much
less common in the private than in the public sector. Of the private-sector employees
in Lithuania, only just over half (53 %) have a permanent job under
written contract. The corresponding percentage among the public sector wage
earners is 74 %.
When fixed-term working relationships are examined, it becomes apparent
that Finland differs considerably from the Baltic countries. Finland is a good
point of comparison, because it has the third largest number of fixed-term jobs
in the EU, after Spain and Portugal. It must be noted, however, that the percentage
of fixed-term working relationships in Finland (17 %) is clearly
smaller than in any of the Baltic countries. In Finland, the proportion of fixedterm
jobs grew for a long time, but in the last few years it has no longer increased,
but remained steady. In all the Baltic countries, the trend has been the
opposite, since the percentage of fixed-term employment relationships there
has increased between 1999 and 2001. In Finland, fixed-term jobs are more
usual in the public than the private sector. In Estonia and Latvia, the sector is