DARBUOTOJŲ MATERIALINĖS ATSAKOMYBĖS INSTITUTO PERSPEKTYVOS LIETUVOJE

Abstract

The adoption of the Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania (came into force on 1 January, 2003) was very important part of labour law reform. Labour code has prompted inevitable changes in the regulation of indemnification and has established on the level of law the institute of material liability encompass the employer’s liability to the employee and employee’s liability to the employer. The Code of Labour Laws adopted in 1972 and valid until the adoption of the Labour Code regulated material liability of workers and employees, leaving the definition of material liability concept for the law doctrine and court practice. Therefore when making labour law reforms the conditions of material liability as well as principle aspects of the application of material liability were established in the Labour Code, and a totally new method for the defense of violated rights was introduced – i.e. the right to claim for the indemnification resulting from legal relationship between the employer and the employee. However, having analyzed the stipulations of the Labour Code one can observe that certain problems of material liability have remained unsolved in labour law. Moreover, determination of other possible methods of indemnification has resulted in many ambiguities in practice due to their relations to material liability. The urgency of the topic lies in the need to disclose and analyze the current method of material liability regulation in Lithuania, when material liability is considered as an independent type of liability and is regulated by the law. Another aspect determining the urgency of the the topic is the need to estimate whether the current legal regulation of material liability corresponds to the social changes in the market, whether it ensures the social compromise between employees and employers with different interests, and whether it allows the parties themselves to determine liability rules on the basis of the agreement. It is particularly important to find out that the draft of the new Labour code is prepared, in which many rules of material liability institute are changed.