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

147
whereas for the over-50s the proportion was ’only’ 18 %. In Lithuania, too, the
younger wage earners were more often working a fixed term than the rest. In
Lithuania, 38 % of wage earners under 30 were in fixed-term jobs. An interesting
phenomenon was that the percentages of fixed-term relationships for the
older age groups were practically the same - in other words, ageing did not
affect the proportion after the age of 30. In all the other age groups apart from
the under-30s, one in four wage earners in Lithuania was working in a fixedterm
job.
Latvia differs from Estonia and Lithuania in that age in Latvia has no significance
in connection with generality of fixed-term employment relationships.
Almost one-third of the wage earners of all ages are in fixed-term jobs. A
comparison of different areas of business in Latvia reveals that the highest
proportions of fixed-term jobs are in the hotel and restaurant business (43 %)
and in trade (40 %). The lowest percentage is in the construction sector (13 %)
- but in the particular field of business in question, illegitimate, oral work
contracts are in the most common use of all. Of the construction workers in
Latvia included in the study data, more than a quarter (28 %) had no written
employment contract.
EXTRA AGREEMENTS
Since it is laid down by law that employment contracts have to be made in
writing, it is possible that the employee has been made to sign an extra agreement
by the employer, the idea of which is to make the employee surrender
some of his/her rights or benefits for the employer's benefit; in other words, to
water down the security offered by the agreement. An example of such an extra
document could be, for example, a notice of dismissal signed by the employee
and left with the employer with the date field open. This document
could then be used by the employer. We surveyed the existence of such activity
through a separate question.