Some aspects of improving the legal regulation of labour relations: Thirty years of experience in the Baltic States

In the context of globalisation processes, technological changes, and business mobility, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are facing the necessity to modify their approach towards the legal regulation of employment relations. Labour laws of the Baltics States, namely concerning new forms of work, work–life balance, and social dialogue, were systematised, rectified, and clarified by analysing texts that consist of primary and secondary sources. The research conducted in the article showed that the move from strict regulation to more flexible arrangements between employer and employee in these states is an ongoing process, which has been delayed for more than 10 years, because during that period the old Soviet laws inherited from the past (with appropriate amendments) were in force. Therefore, the search for new forms of work is slow, the regulation of working time remains rather strict and inflexible, and the involvement of social partners in the processes of collective bargaining remains very formal and segmented. This legal research of transformation of legal regulation of labour relations in the Baltic States might be used to forecast future developments of such legal regulation, as well as to enrich the imagination and increase the set of alternatives to be considered when drafting possible future rules.