Civil servants and officers are seeking for better social guarantees

On September 2005 trade unions of Lithuanian law enforcement officers and civil servants signed a resolution whereby they raised requirements concerning their social guarantees. Failure by the Government to satisfy these requirements resulted in protest actions rippling all over Lithuania.

On 29 September 2005, Mr. Artūras Navaitis, the chairman of the national trade union of internal affairs institutions (Vidaus reikalų sistemos respublikinė profesinė sąjunga), Mr. Tomas Vaitkunskas, the chairman of the pre-trial investigation institutions’ trade union of the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublikos ikiteisminio tyrimo įstaigų profesinė sąjunga), Mr. Saulius Džiautas, the chairman of the Lithuanian trade union association of firemen and rescuers (Lietuvos ugniagesių gelbėtojų profesinių sąjungų susivienijimas), Ms. Irena Petraitienė, the chairperson of the Lithuanian trade union of civil servants (Lietuvos valstybės tarnautojų profesinė sąjunga), and Mr. Gemas Durneika, the chairman of the co-ordination council of the Lithuanian trade union association of customs officers (Lietuvos muitinės darbuotojų profesinių sąjungų susivienijimo koordinacinė taryba), signed a joint resolution whereby they raised three key requirements:

1. 'to set up the procedure for refund of the portion of salaries not paid to civil servants and officers within 2002-2004' (on 13 December 2004, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania passed a decision whereby it was acknowledged that from 1 July 2002 Lithuania civil servants have not been paid a portion of salaries due to them under the law);

2. 'to take prompt measures so that from 1 January 2006 the minimum wage (MW) - LTL 550 (EUR 159) per month, as fixed by the Government, would be applied in calculation of public servants’ wages' (at the moment, LTL 430 (EUR 125) MW is applied in calculation of wages for civil servants and officers);

3. 'to take prompt measures so that pensions would not be reduced for law enforcement officers/civil servants who will retire from 1 January 2006' (from 1 January 2006, pensions to civil servants/officers will be reduced by LTL 200 (EUR 58).

The resolution pronounces that in case of failure to take proper actions by the Government (Lietuvos Respublikos Vyriausybė, LRV), on 30 October 2005 preliminary work will start in order to initiate mass protest actions. Civil servants/officers follow their promises and carry out protest actions on November 2005 (such actions have taken place in Vilnius, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, other Lithuanian cities/towns).

In order to settle the above-mentioned situation, on 14 November the Ministry of the Interior (Vidaus reikalų ministerija, VRM) initiated a meeting of Mr. Gintaras Furmanavičius, the Minister of the Interior with representatives from the trade union of pre-trial investigation institutions, the national trade union of the internal affairs institutions and the trade union association of firemen and rescuers. According to the press, an agreement was reached at the meeting to co-operate on a tri-partite principle in the settlement of issues related to salaries of officers of the interior systems, organisation of the office, improvement of qualifications and reskilling, application of economic and social guarantees. In addition, discussions were held on the possibility to establish a Tripartite Commission at the VRM to be comprised of two representatives from the VRM, statutory organisations and trade unions each. However, though at the meeting the representatives of the mentioned trade unions supported the establishment of the Tripartite Commission, they don’t think this commission will be able to settle the requirements raised in the resolution; hence, most of problems painful to the civil servants and officers remain open so far.

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