| Abstract [eng] |
One of the features of relationship is its susceptibility to conflicts, therefore it is inevitable for conflicts to occur in legal relationships in work and some of the conflicts become work disputes. Categorization of work disputes to collective and individual is relevant because procedure and methods of resolution of work disputes depend on their type. Various legal goods can be the object of a dispute; however, this paper analyzes disputes which occur due to resolution of collective negotiations and collective contracts in the practice of courts in Lithuania. The paper is not limited only by disputes which occur due to collective negotiations and collective contracts, it also provides an analysis of Lithuanian court cases of legality of strikes because these cases judge the issues of execution of collective contracts and discuss a procedure and principals of collective negotiations. Everyone who is involved with collective negotiations must follow these principals and the procedure. After conducting the analysis of court precedent, we can say that in some cases courts inappropriately apply legal norms which regulate collective work relationships: they limit workers’ right to strike with having no ground for that, they fail to follow the term of collective contracts even though normative terms of collective contracts are a significant source of labor law. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to also look at some judgments of Supreme Court of Lithuania, which could contribute to the development of collective work relationships and promote employers to sign collective contracts: we can say that collective contracts can help to decide on working conditions, which formally are not compatible with imperative requirements of the law, if the collective contract corresponds a mutual will of both parties and in general does not undermine the situation of employees. It is reasonable to believe that deciding on whether a collective contract undermines the situation of employees is a prerogative of a court and only a court, after considering all of the terms of a collective contract, can point to a collective contract which undermines the situation of employees while following the principals of justice and reason. In the last part of the paper, the author presents some suggestion on how it is possible to improve Lithuania labor law so that the mistakes of law application would be avoided in future and that Lithuanian labor law could become a harmonious aspect of European Union law, which regulates a right to strike. |
