The activities of the out-of-court dispute resolution authority – the Labour Disputes Committee (LDC) in labour disputes concerning the lawfulness of dismissals from work has been studied in order to verify the assumption made in the professional practice of attorneys at law that approximately 50 per cent of LDC decisions concerning the lawfulness of dismissals from work are appealed to court. Such disputes had been heard at courts before the entry into force of the new Labour Code. If this assumption proves to be true, that would constitute the basis to state that the new regulation introduced by the new Labour Code and the activities of the LDC have increased the length and costs of litigation. The assessment of the data collected has proved that this assumption is partly true. It has been identified that disputed LDC decisions (LDC decisions to satisfy or dismiss claims) are appealed to court in 44 per cent of the cases. These conclusions are based on the data submitted by the State Labour Inspectorate (SLI) to Professional Law Partnership RIID in October 2019. The statistics of the SLI for the first half of 2019 has been analysed. A more thorough data analysis has been provided by the SLI in the assessment of the data between May 2019 and August 2019.
Over the 6 months (the first half of 2019), the SLI has disposed of 329 claims concerning the lawfulness of dismissals from work, of which, the applicants had withdrawn the claims in 30 cases. It means that the entire hearing proceedings at the LDC has taken place with respect to 299 claims.
According to the data of the SLI, the LDC was ordered by courts to forward cases concerning the lawfulness of dismissals from work 48 times between May 2019 and August 2019. The SLI considers that around 25 per cent of the LDC decisions concerning the lawfulness of dismissals are appealed to court. According to our estimations, however, this percentage is considerably higher because the estimations of the SLI do not take into consideration the fact that in around 35 per cent of the cases the LDC proceedings had been closed by peaceful settlement agreements (in 106 instances out of 299 cases). It is likely that the cases closed by peaceful settlement agreements at the LDC are not re-heard at court. Therefore, the LDC rendered 159 decisions satisfying or dismissing claims that were potentially disputed at court over the 6 month (the claims satisfied constituted 22 per cent or 72 cases and the claims were dismissed in 87 instances or in 22 per cent of the cases). If 48 decisions are appealed to court over 4 months, that constitutes 44 per cent of all cases. This indicator is relevant in order to assess whether the outcomes achieved by the LDC are of good quality and whether the new regulation of the Labour Code has attained its objectives. The data available do not allow more detailed conclusions, e.g. about the regions and the nature of labour disputes where the highest number appeals against LDC decisions are made (how many elements of EU and international law there were in the appealed decisions, how many decisions related to complicated cases dealing with the application of law, etc.). The SLI does not collect any data about the number of LDC decisions revoked (i.e. new decisions rendered) by courts. The data of the National Courts Administration about labour disputes heard at court do not provide any indication of the relationship between court decisions and LDC decisions, therefore, the statistics collected by this institution does show the performance results of the LDC as well. The persons participating in LDC hearings are not surveyed for the assessment of the competence of the LDC members. It follows that the competence of the LDC members is not assessed in Lithuania.
To sum up, the out-of-court LDC proceedings in disputes concerning the lawfulness of dismissals from work are considered by the parties as a useful platform for making peaceful settlement agreements. 35 per cent of all the claims heard by the LDC concerning the lawfulness of dismissals from work ended by peaceful settlement agreements. In the first half of 2019, this percentage has decreased – peaceful settlement agreements were made in 40 per cent of the cases between July 2016 and December 2017. The changes of this outcome should be monitored each year because the ratio of peaceful settlement agreements is one of the most important performance indicators of the LDC, however, it has no impact on the length and costs of litigation of the parties. It is likely that the length of litigation in order to reach settlement at court would be similar. Litigation costs in case of peaceful settlements both at court and at the LDC would not necessarily be reimbursed. Therefore, the performance of the LDC where a considerable number of peaceful settlement agreements are made had a major impact on the reduction of the workload of courts rather than on the length and costs of labour disputes. The workload of courts in labour disputes concerning the lawfulness of dismissals from work has reduced by approximately 212 labour cases over one year (2019) (where peaceful settlement agreements were made at the LDC). That may not be considered as a significant reduction in the workload of courts.
Therefore, the indicator of 44 per cent of judicial appeals made against LDC decisions is highly relevant: the higher the percentage of the appeals submitted against LDC decisions to court, the lower the impact of the LDC performance and of the new regulation on the length and costs of litigation. The number of judicial appeals against LDC decisions would potentially decrease, if the competence of LDC members increased. The SLI and the Ministry of Social Security and Labour do not collect information about the competence of LDC members and do not appraise it. The out-of-court dispute resolution institutions where representatives from society are involved are criticised in various academic sources for the lack of competence of such representatives.
It is recommended that the SLI and the Ministry of Social Security and Labour should monitor and assess the competence of LDC members and identify the areas where the qualifications should be improved. It should also be proposed that data about the outcomes of the judicial review of LDC decisions should be collected because availability of such data would allow a more accurate assessment of the new regulation introduced by the Labour Code and the effectiveness of the LDC performance.
