Lithuania’s Seimas (Parliament) has passed a new Labour Code on Tuesday after six months of debates, which if signed into law by President Dalia Grybauskaitė, will come into effect in 2017.

The draft labour code was first approved by the Government on 23 July 2015, however a final agreement had not yet been reached. The labour code intends to increase flexibility and to strike a new balance between the employers’ and the employees’ interests.

The Labour code has been highly disputed due to elections. In December 2015, the members of the Parliamentary Committee of Social Affairs and Labour did not respect the agreements between the Government and social partners that were reached in the Tripartite Council.

The Labour Code has been heavily debated alongside 40 other laws proposed by the Government, which together constitute the ‘new social model’.