Employment, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Lithuania

On Friday, the Vilnius District Court rejected a claim of Manpower Lit, a temporary employment company which hired temporary staff for EIGE, against an unfavorable decision by the State Labor Inspectorate.

The dispute reached court after the Vilnius labor dispute commission of the Lithuania's Labor Inspectorate ordered Manpower Lit to raise pay for temporary EIGE staff so that it matched the pay of permanent EIGE staff and also pay the difference for six months, with every person awarded around 3,000 euros.

"Despite the fact that the claimants were not and could not be considered officials or civil servants under the EU civil servant employment regulations, they in fact performed the functions of permanent staff at EIGE," the court ruled.

The court believes the EIGE chose to employ part of its staff through the employment agency, hiring temporary staff, "in fact to reduce human resources costs in certain positions and to avoid longer and more complicated EU selection procedures for permanent staff."

"It (…) cannot be the basis to pay considerably smaller salaries to the claimants employed under temporary contracts than those to EU civil servants," the court said.

The ruling can still be appealed with the Vilnius Regional Court within a month.

Six employees had claimed their average pay exceeded 700 euros. Meanwhile, permanent employees in the same category with the same education and working experience were paid almost 2,000 euros.

Manpower Lit representatives say they did not breach the European rules for pay for the same work at the institution, saying that employees' functions were totally different.