Trade unions' law evolution in post-soviet countries: the Experiences of Lithuania and Russia

ENDuring last eighteen years, Lithuania and Russia have been independent states. Nevertheless, their trade union movement has common grounds going back to Soviet legislation. Modem labor law has changed significantly both in Russia and Lithuania, especially in issues of trade unions' status and collective bargaining regulation. The path of the parallel development of trade union legislation in these two countries is interesting task from the standpoint of finding common trends and problems in the transition of trade union status from socialist to market economies. Taking into account rather strained political relations between the Baltic states and Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it should have been expected that both countries had practically no influence upon each other's legal systems, and their initially common legislation has been developing absolutely independently. Nevertheless, our analysis shows that the reality is not exactly like one could reasonably expect.