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Labour market flexibilisation in Lithuania: Outcomes and impacts on gender differences in work arrangements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Arunas Juska  and
Jekaterina Navicke
Arunas Juska*
Affiliation:
East Carolina University, USA
Jekaterina Navicke
Affiliation:
Vilnius University, Lithuania
*
Arunas Juska, Department of Sociology, East Carolina University, Brewster A–410, 10th Street, Greenville, NC 27858, USA. Email: juskaa@ecu.edu
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Abstract

This paper evaluates the impacts of 2017’s labour law liberalisation on labour market flexibility in Lithuania. While employment did grow rapidly in 2017–2019, there was little change in labour market flexibility. Against expectations, part-time employment declined as labour relations continued to be administered under path-dependent institutional inertia inherited from previous decades. The prevalence of full-time, dual-earner employment was shaped by the country’s socialist legacy and was reflected in high employment rates and permanent open-ended contracts for both men and women. Analysis also showed that the revised labour law lowered the probability for women with family care responsibilities to be hired. Once hired, they were offered permanent employment albeit with the reduced protections that such contracts now provide. Impacts of the new labour law on shaping what is considered to be ‘men’s work’ and ‘women’s work’ in Lithuania are discussed.

Keywords

J00Genderemployment flexibilitylabour law liberalisation
Type
Gender and work
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , September 2022 , pp. 502 - 525
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2022

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