VILNIUS, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Lithuanian parliament (Seimas) adopted a new labor code for the country on Tuesday on new types of employment contracts, and changes in determining the time of employees' annual leave among other updated provisions.
If Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite does not veto the new legislation, it should come into force as of July 1.
The parliament's decision marks the end of the heavily debated legislation.
"We adopted a balanced labor code which has been agreed among the social partners and which provides more flexible labor relations," Tomas Tomilinas, a lawmaker from the ruling Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union, was quoted as saying by the local media.
He added that now it is up to businesses and employers to "do everything that is possible in order to reduce emigration and increase wages".
Compared to the previous labor code, the new legislation provides for new types of employment such as contracts for project work, apprenticeships or temporary jobs.
According to the new regulation, employees are entitled to 20 working days of paid annual leave rather than the 28 calendar days leave provided under the current legislation.
It also puts a 60-hour cap on the working week, including extra jobs and overtime hours.
The updated legislation makes it easier to fire employees with a so-called fast dismissal clause that allows an employer to dismiss an employee by giving him notice only three days beforehand.
However, in regular circumstances under the code, an employer may dismiss an employee after giving them one month's notice, if the person has been working more than one year, or two weeks before, if the person has been working less than a year.
The country's former prime minister, Social Democratic Party Member of Parliament (MP) Algirdas Butkevicius, who presented the updated labor code in the previous Seimas, said that the adoption of the new legislation should transform into "one of the largest reforms in the modern history of Lithuania".
However, he noted that Lithuania badly lagged in this area and the reform was overdue as the amendments to the labor code were submitted to the parliament in February 2015 and finally adopted only in June 2017.
Ausrine Armonaite, a lawmaker from the Liberals Movement, said the new labor code was important in order to give more clarity both to employers and employees.
"Nevertheless, the fact that the provisions, which should come in force as of July, are being discussed in June, is scandalous as there is too little time to get prepared for the new regulations in the area of labor relations," Armonaite underlined.
Andrius Kubilius, former prime minister and representative of the parliamentary opposition conservative party Homeland UnionLithuanian Christian Democrats, said he did not see major changes in the updated legislation.
"I believe even the authors don't know who fixed what and where; jobs are being created by investors, I did not hear how many jobs this (new labor code) would encourage to create," Kubilius was quoted as saying by local media.
