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

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two Baltic countries. This should be studied in greater detail. On the other
hand Estonia, as also Latvia, seems to be very democratic in this matter. There
is practically no difference between the public and private sectors. Similarly,
the possibilities of different age groups are at more or less the same level. The
only gaps are between the genders: in contrast to Lithuania, the men in Estonia
have more chances of influencing their work content than the women have.
During the last few years, the men's autonomy in this respect has grown
slightly and the women's decreased. 5
POSSIBILITIES OF INFLUENCING WORK TEMPO
The Lithuanian wage earners' increased possibilities of influence can also be
seen when these are asked about in relation to the tempo of work. In the previous
study, 15 % of Lithuania's workers considered the possibilities extremely
good in this connection; now, the percentage has doubled. Almost one-third
(30 %) of the employees in Lithuania claimed to have total ability to influence
the working pace, and even slightly more than that felt they could influence it
rather a lot. The changes which have taken place in the degree of wage earners'
job autonomy in Lithuania are very significant.
Although Lithuanian wage earners' powers of decision have increased considerably,
Latvia still leads the Baltic countries as far as autonomy in one's job is
concerned. More than two out of three wage earners in Latvia (68 %) felt able
to influence their work tempo rather a lot or totally. The changes in job autonomy
there in recent years have been rather insignificant ones: the country has
been very stable in this respect.
Estonia has shown similar stability; but there, the wage earners' possibilities of
influencing either the content or the tempo of their work are definitely fewer
than in Latvia and Lithuania. In Estonia, only 16 % of the employees considered
their potential to influence the work tempo as extremely good. This figure
is a little less than half of that of Latvia and of Lithuania, being even smaller
than that of Finland.
5 In the previous survey, 12 % of the female wage earners felt they could exert influence their work
content totally and 28 % rather a lot. Now, the corresponding proportions were 9 % and 28 %.
Previously, 11 % of the men considered their possibilities of influencing their work content as total,
and 29 % as rather a lot. The figures in the present study were 10 % and 32 %.