VDI labour answers: overtime caps, hiring rules, severance

Lithuanian employers get official answers on overtime, works councils, hiring third-country nationals and severance in one place. The State Labour Inspectorate (Valstybinė darbo inspekcija, VDI) has substantially expanded its Dažniausiai užduodami klausimai page, adding guidance on collective bargaining, representation, working time, hiring and dismissal.

Overtime stays capped by statute even where a collective agreement applies.LRV Under Darbo kodeksas (DK) Article 119, overtime in any seven consecutive calendar days may not exceed eight hours without the employee’s written consent to up to twelve, and the average working week including overtime may not exceed forty-eight hoursLRV. The annual ceiling of one hundred eighty hours standsLRV; only a collective agreement may set a longer annual durationLRV. Pay follows DK Article 144: at least double pay for work on an unscheduled rest day or a public holidayLRV, one-and-a-half times for overtimeE TAR, double for overtime at night or on an unscheduled rest dayLRV, and two-and-a-half times for overtime on a public holidayE TAR, computed on the whole wage including bonusesLRV.

On representation, managers and officers entrusted with organising and supervising the employer's work may not sit on a works councilLRV; a council that falls below three members with no reserve candidate endsLRV, and after a merger or business transfer the councils in place may agree on electing one matching the new structure, with the election procedure starting within a monthLRV (councils that do not agree keep their powers until their terms endLRV). A collective agreement runs no more than four years unless it provides otherwiseLRV and must be registered and published under the minister's procedureLRV.

Hiring third-country nationals turns on the 1 July 2024 narrowing of Įstatymas „Dėl užsieniečių teisinės padėties" Article 62(2)LRV: since that date only listed short-stay foreigners — EU-company secondees, Lithuanian ship crews, business visitors, lecturers and researchers, and nationals of Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and South Korea — may work during short-term stayLRV. A lawful hire otherwise needs a work permit (or an exemption)LRV plus proof of lawful stayLRV, a written contract in Lithuanian and a language the foreigner understandsLRV, a social-insurance start notice one working day before work beginsLRV, and an LDU-form notice to the Inspectorate and the Employment Service through EDAS one working day before hiringLRV.

On termination, a fixed-term contract with a pregnant employee may end on expiryLRV; in bankruptcy the dismissal protections are displaced — written warning within three working days of the bankruptcy order (seven in a collective-redundancy case)LRV and dismissal on the fifteenth working day after the warningLRV, with two average wages of severance (half for service under a year)LRV. An employee who reaches pension age under an open-ended contract may resign on five working days' noticeLRV with two average wages of severance (one for service under a year)LRV, whenever after reaching pension age they use itLRV. Long-serving dismissed employees additionally draw 77.58 per cent of one, two or three months' average pay for five-to-ten, ten-to-twenty or over twenty years of serviceLRV, paid no earlier than three months after dismissalLRV; since 1 January 2026 the benefit is granted without an application where the employee's data are in the register, otherwise on application within twelve months of dismissalE TAR. Unpaid wage claims in bankruptcy rank firstLRV, with up to six minimum wages payable from the Garantinis fondasLRV.

Legal basis: Darbo kodeksas Articles 56, 61, 62, 119, 144, 170, 176 and 190–202; Įstatymas „Dėl užsieniečių teisinės padėties" Articles 62(2) and 64(1); Užimtumo įstatymas Article 56; Garantijų darbuotojams jų darbdaviui tapus nemokiam ir ilgalaikio darbo išmokų įstatymas Articles 7–11.