| Abstract [eng] |
The paper analyzes the institute for the representation of employees in Lithuania and the selected foreign countries, particularly, at the enterprise level, and seeks to determine whether the employee representation model chosen in a country is effective in practice. In the first part, the concepts of representation and representatives of employees’ are disclosed. It is concluded, that, according to the labor law, representation is aimed to seek a compromise and social partnership between the parties in labor relations. In collective labor relations, the representatives of employees and their groups can be trade unions or their organizations, work councils or a representative of the enterprise’s employees. The concept of the principle of freedom of association, its meaning and application in the institute for the representation of employees, together with the main models of employee representation, is discussed. Grouping of the countries according to the identified models of representation, divided them into two main groups – the countries where employees’ representatives - trade unions and work councils - are (almost) equivalent and perform equally and countries dominated by trade unions. In the second part, the countries, where trade unions and work councils are equal partners, at least at the enterprise level, are overviewed. This part analyzes the regulation of employee representation in Lithuania and Hungary. The conclusion reached is that the main representative of the employees in Lithuania is trade unions, while work councils are an additional / alternate representative. However, at the enterprise level, both mentioned employees' representatives have equal rights. Meanwhile, the analysis of the dualistic model chosen in Hungary has proved almost dormant in practice, causing more confusion than clarity. The third part deals with a model of employees’ representatives in which only trade unions are in a dominant position. The main representative of employees in Poland is trade unions, while work councils, at least for the time being, remain “secondary” employees’ representatives, giving priority to trade unions. At the same time, the monistic trend of the representation is dominant in Sweden, where all the powers of employees’ representatives are assigned to a single entity - trade unions. The “Swedish model” is characterized by high levels of self-regulation, state non-interference and autonomy of social partners – that is the reason why the role of trade unions in this country is extremely significant. Currently, the rate of trade unions in this country is one of the highest in the world. This allows a conclusion, that such employee representation model is very efficient, and, therefore, worth pursuing by other countries too. |
