Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Lithuania

Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1) (Ratification: 1931)
Forty-Hour Week Convention, 1935 (No. 47) (Ratification: 1994)

In order to provide a comprehensive view of the issues relating to the application of ratified Conventions on working time, the Committee considers it appropriate to examine Conventions No. 1 and 47 (hours of work) together.

Legislative developments. The Committee notes the adoption of a new Labour Code (Law No. XII-2603) on 14 September 2016, which entered into force on 1 July 2017 and repealed the previous Labour Code (Law No. IX-926), with all amendments and additions.

Hours of work

Articles 2(b), 2(c), 4, and 5 of Convention No. 1 and Article 1 of Convention No. 47. Variable distribution of working hours. Circumstances. The principle of a 40-hour week. The Committee notes that sections 113 to 116 of the Labour Code regulate working time arrangements which include the averaging of working hours. Specifically, it notes that section 113(1) provides that the reference periods for these arrangements may not exceed three consecutive months; while section 114(2) sets as maximum limits for these arrangements 12 working hours per day and 60 per week, which is to include overtime and work done according to an agreement on additional work. In this respect, the Committee observes that none of these provisions sets any precise circumstances under which resort to averaging of working hours is allowed. The Committee recalls that the averaging of hours of work in general is authorized in the Convention only over a reference period of one week, and provided that a daily limit of nine hours is required (Article 2(b)); and that in all the other cases in which the averaging of working hours is allowed over reference periods longer than a week, the circumstances are clearly specified, as follows:

• (i)in case of shift work, it shall be permissible to employ persons in excess of 8 hours in any one day and 48 hours in any one week, if the average number of hours over a period of three weeks or less does not exceed 8 per day and 48 per week (Article 2(c));
• (ii)in those processes which are required by reason of the nature of the process to be carried on continuously by a succession of shifts, the daily and weekly limit of hours of work may be exceeded subject to the condition that the working hours shall not exceed 56 in the week on the average (Article 4); and
• (iii)in exceptional cases where it is recognised that the limits of 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week cannot be applied, agreements between workers' and employers' organizations may fix a longer daily limit of works, provided that the average number of hours worked per week, over the number of weeks covered by any such agreement, shall not exceed 48 (Article 5).

Therefore, the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures to bring the above provisions of the Labour Code in conformity with the requirements of Convention No. 1.

Regarding the principle of the 40-hour week, the Committee notes that, in response to its previous comments, the Government indicates that section 112(3) of the Labour Code provides that an employee’s standard working hours shall be 40 per week. The Committee observes however that by virtue of section 121 of the Labour Code, Government Resolution No. 534 of 28 June 2017 determines the peculiarities of working time and rest time in transport, electronic communications, postal, agricultural, peat excavation, agricultural processing, energy companies, medical and social care, educational institutions, fishing vessels and other economic activities, and provides for a list of jobs for which working hours of up to 24 hours a day may be applied. The Committee also observes that section 114(2) of the Labour Code prescribes, in cases of averaging in working time arrangements, maximum limits of 12 and 60 daily and weekly working hours respectively, in a context of undefined circumstances for resorting to averaging and over reference periods that extend up to three months. Recalling that these provisions authorize practices that would possibly lead to unreasonably long hours of work, in direct contradiction to the principle of progressive reduction of hours of work, the Committee requests the Government to take the measures necessary to ensure that the principle of a 40-hour week provided for by Convention No. 47 is fully applied both in law and in practice.

Article 6 of Convention No. 1. Temporary exceptions. Circumstances. The Committee notes that section 119(2) of the Labour Code stipulates that the employer may only instruct an employee to perform overtime work with the employee's consent, except in cases where:

• (i)unplanned work critical to society must be performed or action must be taken to prevent calamities, dangers, accidents or natural disasters or to eliminate the consequences thereof that require prompt eradication;
• (ii)it is necessary to complete a job or eliminate a failure due to which a large number of employees would have to cease work or materials, products or equipment would be damaged; and
• (iii)this is stipulated in the collective agreement.

In this respect, the Committee observes that section 119 only prescribes the circumstances under which an employer may request an employee to work overtime without his or her consent, while remaining silent on the circumstances under which resort to overtime can be made with the employee’s consent and by collective agreement. The Committee recalls that temporary exceptions to normal hours of work are authorized in the Convention in very limited and well-circumscribed cases. Recalling the impact that long hours of work can have on workers’ health and work–private life balance, the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures to define the exceptional circumstances under which normal hours of work may be temporarily increased in industrial establishments, in accordance with this Article of the Convention.