MINISTRY OF SOCIAL SECURITY AND LABOUR SOCIAL REPORT 2006–2007 Vilnius 2007 Dear Readers of the Social Report, This year, as in previous years, we present an overview of our activities in the last year, and the first part of this year, for your evaluation. For a number of years we have been trying to work so that you – the people of our country – feel more socially secure, and are able to make a fruitful contribu- tion to the job that suits you, while feeling sure about your future. Last year was a year of thorough and consistent work. It led to the strengthening of the social se- curity system, and continuing economic growth enabled it to be more beneficial for you – better and more generously responding to your needs, eliminating poverty and strengthening social cohesion. The situation in the labour market improved – the employment level increased, unemployment was reduced, workplaces became safer, and the relationship between employers and employees became more transparent. All this is analysed in detail in the report, and here I would like to draw your at- tention to some activity priorities of growing importance. The rapidly changing life of the country makes us constantly revise our activity priorities, and better adapt social and labour policies to the newly arising needs of the population. A decreased birth rate, a more and more noticeable lack of labour force, and the emerging population ageing draw our attention to the family, and urge us to modify the family policy so that parents raising children are provided with more favourable opportunities for reconciling family and professional life. Only in this way will we be able to achieve a position where our country does not feel the shortage of labour Social Report 2006–2007 force and young people who will replace the older generation. We plan to intensively pursue our work of creating a family-friendly environment. Another fairly new priority activity is the control of economic migration. The drafted Strategy on Regulation of Economic Migration should help the country keep the necessary labour force, and make our citizens return home and apply their gained working experience. We have made consider- able input in this field, enabling us to expect success in the future. The shortage of labour force is not only a current problem – it will also arise in the future due to unfavourable demographic changes and migration. It is therefore important to return as many people as possible who have withdrawn from the labour market, but who are still able to work, by promoting the creation of qualitative workplaces and the occurrence of favourable employment conditions and relations. We have been doing a lot in this direction; still, we will have to do more. Here, I have mentioned only some of the most important aspects and priorities of our activities. More detailed and specific information on our activities is provided in the report, and I invite you to read it, give your opinion, and evaluate our activities. I would like to express my appreciation to the working group of report drafters, and everybody who assisted in its drafting. Minister of Social Security and Labour Vilija Blinkevičiūtė Social Report 2006–2007 CO–AUTHORS OF THE SOCIAL REPORT 2006–2007 INTRODUCTION Dalia Milkevičienė Ramunė Tarasevičiūtė Stanislovas Valickas LABOUR MARKET Gintarė Bužinskaitė Rimantas Garbštas Asta Kraujalytė Rasa Malaiškienė Auksė Rėklaitytė Jurga Šimkutė Raimonda Sneigienė Jurgita Vitkauskienė SOCIAL INSURANCE AND PENSIONS Vaidotas Kalinauskas Aušra Kanclerienė Vidija Paštukienė SOCIAL SUPPORT Danutė Akulavičienė Almira Gecevičiūtė Gražina Jalinskienė Tatjana Knyzienė Andrius Tekorius Kristina Vaitkevičienė EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION Daiva Junevičienė Vanda Juršėnienė Daiva Zabarauskienė MEMBERSHIP INTO THE EU AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION Milda Petrokaitė Karolina Anda Juodpusytė Head of Working Group – dr. Povilas Vytautas Žiūkas Scientific editor – dr. Romas Lazutka Coordinators – Vaida Budzevičienė, Kristina Vaitkevičienė The Administration of the Ministry of Social Security and Labour pays heartfelt thanks to the team of editors and to the leaders of the departments of the Ministry for their work preparing this edition Social Report 2006–2007 Content 1. INTRODUCTION . 7 1.1 Mission and strategic goals of the Ministry . 9 1.2 Public relations and counseling of individuals on social security matters . 15 2. LABOUR MARKET . 19 2.1 Promotion of employment and investments into human capital . 19 2.2 Regulation of labour relations . 54 3. Social insurance and pensions . 75 3.1 Finances of the state social insurance fund in 2006 . 75 3.2 Improvement of the state social insurance system . 76 3.3 Changes in the pension system . 84 3.4 Accumulation of pensions . 94 3.5 Conclusions and summary . 98 4. SOCIAL SUPPORT . 99 4.1 Social assistance for families and children . 99 4.2 Child care . 113 4.3 Youth policy . 124 4.4 Social services and social work . 125 4.5 Social protection of aggrieved persons and its implementation . 132 4.6 Implementation of measures of the Strategy for Reduction of Poverty and Social Exclusion and of the National Strategy of Overcoming the Consequences of Ageing . 137 5. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION . 151 5.1 Equal opportunities and non-discrimination . 151 5.2 Social integration of the disabled . 152 5.3 Gender mainstreaming . 159 5.4 Social integration of foreigners granted asylum . 165 5.5 2004–2007 programme for social adaptation of convicts and persons released from places of imprisonment . 166 5.6. Conclusions . 167 6. MEMBERSHIP INTO THE European Union . 169 6.1 Activity related to membership of Lithuania in the European Union . 169 6.2 Economic migration . 182 7. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION . 191 7.1 Taking part in the activities of international organizations . 193 7.2 International agreements . 198 7.3 International agreements and projects . 200 8. ANNEXES . 202 6 Social Report 2006–2007 INTRO1DUCTION The year 2006 and the first half of 2007 covered by this Social Report will go down in history of the Lithuanian social development as a period of a fairly smooth work. A stable political situation, regardless of the prime minister’s change, ongoing economic growth, improving public finances, and the positive impact of Euro integration preconditioned the continuity of social security programmes, and the improvement thereof taking into consideration the gaps that are emerging or have been no- ticed previously, the filling of which has been so far postponed due to insufficient funds. The imperfections which occurred in the country during the reviewed period were rather the problems caused by the growth. Unemployment was more often replaced by the lack of labour force, although emigration notably decreased. Increasing personal income and state fund revenue and expenditure drew attention to a possible inflation growth. Basically, the period 2006–2007 was very favourable to the Lithuanian social and economic development. This Social Report consists of seven main parts. The first, introductory, part presents the mis- sion and the strategic goals of the Ministry of Social Security and Labour. The latter determine the structure of the activities presented in the report because the following goals are pursued: to ensure smooth operation of the labour market, insurance of the employed against losing of income due to social risk, social assistance of the unemployed, equal opportunities for groups of socially vulnerable persons and their social integration. These fields are analysed in individual parts of the Social Report. Such a structure was chosen according to the principle that the straightest way to the welfare of citizens is through the labour market. Persons who experience failure in the labour market due to illness, age or any other specified reasons are protected by the state social insurance system. The unemployed and families of the em- ployed, who incur additional expenses concerning dependent family members, are supported by the social assistance system both by cash benefits and reimbursements. Weaker groups of persons who face more difficulties in adapting to the labour market and other activities (the disabled, refugees, ex-prisoners, etc.) are integrated by applying special programmes. The last two parts of the report focus on the issues of integration into the EU, and international cooperation. Each of the mentioned parts consists of several chapters. These are divided into sections de- pending on the respective social security administration structure. Some main aspects of each part of the Social Report are presented below. Social Report 2006–2007 7 1 C h a p t e r In 2006–2007, the Lithuanian labour market underwent great changes. The employment level kept growing, whereas unemployment was reduced. Surplus of labour force supply was replaced by the lack of labour force. However, there remained a problem of involving economically inactive, el- derly persons, and persons of restricted working capacity in the labour market. In fulfilling the objectives of human resources development, the Ministry of Social Security and Labour implemented the national labour market vocational training policy, ensured the func- tioning and improvement of the labour market vocational training system, and coordinated the acknowledgement of the regulated professional qualifications. Some measures of the Lithuanian Single Programming Document 2004–2006 (hereinafter – SPD) are directly related to the labour market. The Ministry of Social Security and Labour is respon- sible for them as an intermediary authority. The report presents the data on the implementation of these measures and the use of the EU structural funds, as well as planning of the funds of co-financ- ing, implementation of measures, and supervision. Furthermore, in recent years the Ministry actively participated in drafting of the Lithuanian Strategy for the Use of European Union Structural Assistance for 2007–2013, which is granted from the European Social Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Cohesion Fund, and individual operational programmes for the implementation of the strategy.