The Foreign Investors Council in Latvia (FICIL) proposed during a meeting of the Human Capital Development Council held on Thursday, the 24th of October, to lower the bonus pay for overtime work in all sectors of the national economy, as reported by the Ministry of Economics.
According to FICIL, these bonuses should be set at 50%, not double the amount, which is what it is now, but if there is a collective agreement or a general agreement in the sector, the overtime bonus pay would be up to 20%.
At the same time, representatives of the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia state that Latvia is currently the only country in Europe where overtime must be paid at 100% of the amount.
FICIL believes that the existing regulation in the sectors covered by the framework agreement often does not work in practice, and changes could rather reduce the grey economy in the construction sector, for example. During the meeting, FICIL presented a total of 12 proposals for amendments to the Labour Law, which are expected to be discussed in the coming months.
In the light of the heated discussions that broke out during the meeting, Minister of Economics Viktors Valainis invited all parties concerned to present a concrete assessment of each of the proposals presented by FICIL at the next meeting.
It is also necessary to collect more information on what practices exist in other countries on labour law-related matters. “The international edge is very much lacking so far,” Valainis said.
FICIL also offers to make deductions from the payment of the last salary in the event that the employee, upon termination of employment, has not returned the work equipment and in other cases.