Workplace health and safety in pre-accession lithuania: a survey

Abstract

AbstractThe paper reports on the preliminary results of a national survey of employees in business enterprises in Lithuania. The survey was conducted with the primary goal of gauging employee ‘voice’ and participation in health and safety matters in Lithuanian enterprises. Conducted during 2001 and 2002, the survey of over 4,000 employees is the largest to date on this topic for any individual Central and Eastern European candidate country. The period covered by the survey coincides with the implementation of the Law on Safety and Health at Work 2000, produced to incorporate European Union directives on health and safety into Lithuanian legislation. It is suggested that despite legislative transposition, workforce attitudes are primarily conditioned by pervasive insecurity and fear of unemployment. Opportunities for participation in health and safety, on both the part of trade unions and by employees in small and medium-sized enterprises, remain largely unrealised.