The Saeima passed in the final reading amendments to the State Administration Structure Law, which will allow employees that are not loyal to the state to be dismissed from work if the obligation of loyalty to Latvia and the Constitution is not complied with.
The law provides that employment or work relationship may be terminated if an employee of the state administration has expressed a public opinion or performed other actions that clearly show that he or she is not loyal to Latvia and its Constitution, and if such actions could significantly threaten operations of this institution or the interests of the state, the Saeima press service reports.
The law also mentions that a worker of a public institution has an obligation to be loyal to the Republic of Latvia and its Constitution.
Law amendments were initially submitted by the Saeima National Security Committee based on the collective proposal signed by 13 165 citizens “On prohibiting pro-Kremlin leaning individuals from taking posts in state and municipal institutions”.
Although numerous laws that apply to officials and employees of state and municipal institutions, especially civil servants, require them to be loyal to both the state and the Constitution, the changes adopted today equalise treatment of all employees of the state administration without distinguishing it as a requirement for individual groups of persons, the authors of amendments explain.
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