| Abstract [eng] |
As the states developed and abandoned the established patriarchal attitude, particularly much attention was being paid to the establishment of equal opportunities for men and women, especially in legal relationships of labour. Gradually, more women got involved in the labor market on equal rights with the working men; in the meantime direct (not just financial provision) tending for a family has become important and ‘not shameful’ for men, too; however one of them has to devote more time and attention to family. Generally, these are young and employable people who have family commitments and who are particularly needed in a contemporary labour market. Each legal state, therefore, has entrenched an equal rights guarantee as well as created a favorable legal base enabling the combining of labour and family commitments; the so-called positive discrimination is being implemented in order to promote and activate the labour market and simultaneously protect the family as a value. The circle of interests of an employee who has commitments towards family members is associated with his/her duties to the family, which are, in certain cases, difficult to combine with one’s duties at work. When performing the work-related duties, there is not much time left for family and legal basis is, therefore, required as well as an organizational mechanism that would enable the employee to suitably combine his/her job-related and family obligations. Recently, Europe and Lithuania have been paying particularly much attention to the legal base and its implementing mechanism oriented towards family needs and enabling amiable combination of family obligations with professional activities. The master’s thesis reveals the conception of an employee having familial obligations and peculiarities of his/her legal status; it also analyzes the legal base of Lithuania intended for the compatibility of professional activities and interests of family members while assessing its compliance with the legal acts of the European Union. Possibilities for fulfilling one’s family obligations without retreating from the labour market, provided for by the laws, are reviewed. Opportunities to promote the employment of such individuals, guarantees, concessions in employment conditions and employment flexibility opportunities provided to employees who take care of socially more vulnerable family members as well as restrictions imposed on employers and oriented to the protection of family as a value are analyzed while evaluating the theoretical and practical possibilities to enforce such special rights in Lithuania through the mechanisms provided for in the state. |
