NEW CHALLENGES FOR COLLECTIVE LABOUR RELATIONS IN LITHUANIA: LABOUR LAW VS. BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

This paper views the mission and place of labour relations in modern social and economical life. This study has features of social, legal and economic analysis, by which the author tries to summarise the influence of contemporary social phenomena on industrial relations and to show how social partners impact on the social and economic processes. Labour relations have been strongly individualised recently. This was influenced by the processes of globalisation, technological revolution, new types of employment, business transfer, information technologies, etc. What was important in times of industrial revolution and production relations, loses its significance when we speak about technological revolution and consumer society. Labour law also faces new tasks because it is not enough for this law to confine to a particular enterprise or branch of industry. For this reason, contemporary social policy should pay extra attention to the implementation of a new model of industrial relation. Firstly, it should involve coordination of collective labour relations in the European Union, which would use common values and principles in this sphere. Each Member State should try to follow these general but very important principles of European regulation of labour relations. Therefore, the European Union could be seen as accelerant uniting different labour systems.