Exeter business chosen to support Lithuania drive for ‘Decent Work’

Exeter-based Workplace Innovation Europe CLG (WIE) has joined a partnership of organisations in a project to enhance the concept of ‘Decent Work’ in Lithuania. 

WIE is a not-for-profit organisation collaborating with public and private sector enterprises, trade unions and policymakers to explore the future of work and organisations and to share good practice in the workplace.

The Lithuanian initiative is funded by Innovation Norway, the state development agency, as part of its programme aimed at reducing economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area.  In addition, WIE Director Peter Totterdill has been appointed Scientific Adviser to the project.

‘Decent Work’ practices are characterized by work-life balance, diversity and inclusion, job security, healthy work environments and ‘employee voice’, all essential building blocks for employee engagement, a culture of trust in the workplace, and workforce development.

Peter Totterdill said: “The aim of this project is to support and resource bipartite and tripartite social dialogue in the implementation of the Decent Work agenda.  We aim to do this through a programme of training supported by e-learning, a searchable knowledge bank and awareness-raising, including website development, social media campaigns, and webinars/masterclasses.”

Rasa Rotomskienė of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, added: “This project entitled ‘Jobs for the Future: Decent Work for a Competitive Economy’ is predicated on the argument that Decent Work is the key to enhanced competitiveness through workforce engagement, greater organisational agility, and the continuous reinvention of products, services and processes.

“However, unlike Norway and the other Nordic countries, Lithuania has a relatively weak social dialogue tradition to support enterprise-level transition and there is there is little experience or capacity in the type of tripartite dialogue – bringing together workers, employers and policymakers – that has long been established elsewhere.”

Peter Totterdill concluded: “It is very stimulating to see the Workplace Innovation movement continue to grow especially through the real commitment that cross border collaboration demonstrates.”