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FLEXIBLE LABOUR ARRANGEMENTS AS THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
FOR INNOVATIONS IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:
MODERNIZATION OF LITHUANIAN LABOUR LAW
IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT.
Vygintas ŠLIAUTERIS
Vilniaus Kolegija / University of Applied Sciences,
Faculty of Business Management, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Abstract
Draft of the new Labour Code marks a shift from aim to ensure job security, towards more flexible work
arrangement in Lithuanian labour law. This change of legal framework potentially will open ways to new
practices to human resource management in private sector. European Commission, with the good reason,
closely links flexicurity policy to spread of innovative workplaces. “Role model” countries for this policy,
Denmark and the Netherlands, are counted among the most innovative. However both concepts, work
flexibility and innovation, are complex and multidirectional. Studies of Western European labor practices show
negative relation between contractual flexibility, one of the main features of Lithuanian labour reform, and
“employee driven” innovations. Contractual flexibility allows more efficient and innovative use of staff, are
well regarded in business community (including low technology and small enterprises, incapable to R&D
innovations) and have positive effect on solving unemployment problem. At the same time a wide usage of
“managerial” innovations is pushing the labor market into the creation of low-pay “precarious” workplaces
and the creation or group of “permanently-temporary employed” workers.
Keywords: modernization of law, work flexibility, flexicurity, innovations, human resource management.
Introduction
According to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), human
capital is at the heart of the innovation if there is appropriate organization environment and
practices that are conductive to innovations (Ischinger, Wyckoff, 2010). Draft of the new
Labour Code (hereinafter referred to as ‘DNLC’), in spring of 2015 submitted to Lithuanian
Parliament, was prepared on the principals of flexicurity and after adoption will bring
number of novelties in comparison to the current Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania
(hereinafter referred to as ‘CLC’). European Commission links spread of innovations to
flexibility in work arrangements (European Commission, 2007; European Commission, 2010)
“Lithuanian innovation strategy for 2010-2020 years”, the main innovation strategic
planning document, barely mention labour relations. "Report on created legaladministrative
model“ only states that skilled labor power is receptive to innovation and
able to create them, and for that reason number of learning and vocational training
supporting measures is introduced. Legal reform, innovation at its own right, is not stated as
part of Lithuanian innovation strategy and stimulation of innovations is not declared as a
part of modernization of labour relations.
This reflects insufficient interdisciplinary discourse in science and as a result,
compartmentalized approach to complex processes. Impact of legal framework on spread
of innovations in general, and on innovations in human resource management in particular
is still waiting for serious researches in Lithuania.
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