| Abstract [eng] |
Summary The theme of this work is the Local norms as source of labour law. Dynamism is typical of the legal labour relations. Thus it is necessary to combine a centralized and a contractual method when regulating the legal labour relations. The normative provisions of a company’s collective agreement are recognized as the source of labour law of the legislator. The specificity of this source of the labour law is determined both by its adoption procedure – it is a result of the employees’ and the employer’s contractual lawmaking – and by its application field – legal labour relations between the collective of the employees and the employer are regulated by the local norms established in the collective agreement of the company, which are binding to both of the parties. The legislator stimulates a social dialogue by various means. The institute of the labour councils has been found as an alternative to the trade unions however it is still practically ineffective. In addition the Labour Code includes many provisions that can be stipulated only in a collective agreement. However the collective contractual regulation is not developed in Lithuania. In our opinion the adoption of a national collective agreement would change the situation as the national collective agreement would be mandatory to the employers that are members of employer’s organizations. A principle of in favorem would be maintained in such a way. However, the adoption of the national collective agreement would face practical obstacles related with representation of parties. When stimulating the social dialogue the legislator adopted many amendments of the Labour Code that were evaluated negatively because, on the one hand, they restrict the rights of employees, and on the other hand, the laws determine the rights, obligations and guarantees of the parties whereas the collective agreements determine only additional and not regulated working conditions. By supplementing the legislative regulation with the local means, not regulated and additional working conditions may be determined in the regulations. This is the main function of the contractual lawmaking of the social partners. However, when negotiating the social partners cannot establish the conditions that would worsen the situation of the employees comparing with those stipulated in the regulations in the company’s collective agreement. If worsening conditions are stipulated in the collective agreement, such conditions must be recognized as invalid. The social partners can agree on any conditions, however such conditions have to be not prohibited by the law and provided that this does not contradict to the principles of justice, reason and fairness. When evaluating a relation between the company’s collective agreement and the local legal acts adopted solely by the employer, it was determined that in such cases when the law provided for the establishment of certain provisions only in the collective agreement, the employer could not establish them by the sole local legal act. |
