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

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the salary due from their main occupation does not come on time. In fact, the
salary of more than one-third of Lithuania's working people had come late
during the year preceding the survey. This proportion is three times as great as
in Estonia, and nearly twice as great as in Latvia.
An increased incidence of fixed-term employment contracts has been noticeable.
Their relative proportion (29 %) is already beginning to be on the same
level as in Latvia. At the same time, though, the percentage of (illegitimate)
orally agreed work contracts has fallen significantly. There has indeed been a
transition from orally agreed working relationships to fixed-term employment
contracts agreed in writing. In this regard, the development can be considered
positive. On the other hand, at the same time, the number of extra agreements
drawn up in addition to the employment contract proper has clearly grown. In
several cases, the content of the extra agreements may be such that it is disadvantageous
to the worker. In the worst instance, the extra agreement may even
water down the juridical security provided for in the employment contract.
Lithuanian wage earners who have signed an extra agreement are clearly less
satisfied with the content of the agreement than those who have signed one in
Latvia and Estonia.
Satisfaction with one's job and working conditions has become polarised in
Lithuania. Public-sector workers are satisfied in this respect, but the private
sector has the lowest degree of satisfaction in all the Baltic countries. It is
worthy of note that only half of the private-sector wage earners felt it was possible
to make a complaint that they were dissatisfied with their working conditions.
This proportion is definitely smaller than in the Lithuanian public
sector, or elsewhere in the Baltic nations. Fear of losing one's job is what most
probably accounts for the silence. In addition, work has become more intensive
and stressful than before. This change has been a general one: it has affected
wage earners in both the public and the private sector.
In Lithuania, too, the amount of employer-paid training has been quite small,
particularly in the private sector. Only about one in ten private-sector workers
had attended a course paid for partly or completely by the employer during the
preceding year. Of the wage earners in the public sector, however, more than
one in three had received training. This training is often connected with utilisation
of information technology at work. Both computers and mobile phones