WORK-LIFE BALANCE: LEGAL MEASURES AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION (LEGATO)
The Research Council of Lithuania has awarded funding for the postdoctoral fellowship project “Work-life balance: legal measures and their implementation” (LEGATO) led by Dr Gabrielė Taminskaitė-Kočiūnė, a postdoctoral fellow and a researcher at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Science.
The project will analyse the legal measures ensuring work–life balance in Lithuania, their goals, application, and operation in practice.
The aim of the research is to examine how the requirements arising from European Union and international law are integrated into the national legal system, particularly in Lithuania (e.g., the obligation to ensure a child’s relationship with both parents and to facilitate mothers’ smoother return to the labour market), as well as to identify legal measures that are applied exclusively at the national level in Lithuania. The study will seek to reveal (1) what goals (social, economic, and others) are pursued and whether they are or may be achievable under the existing legal framework, (2) whether and how fundamental human rights, recognized at both the international and national constitutional levels, are ensured, and (3) which new legal instruments or adjustments to existing ones would be necessary to achieve better outcomes in the field of work–life balance. The research devotes equal attention to the measures (and their implementation) aimed at ensuring work–life balance for both families and individuals raising children or caring for persons in need of assistance, as well as for single persons and families without such responsibilities.
Based on the findings, the research will formulate and present reasoned recommendations and proposals to the legislature regarding amendments to the existing legal framework or new adoption of the existing legal regulation related to ensuring work-life balance, in order to achieve better results (based on foreign practices, compatibility with constitutional provisions and human rights doctrine, compliance with goals, for which such regulation was or should be established).
Postdoctoral Fellow – Dr Gabrielė Taminskaitė-Kočiūnė. – Dr Gabrielė Taminskaitė-Kočiūnė.
Postdoctoral Fellowship Supervisor – Prof. Dr Ingrida Mačernytė-Panomariovienė.
Project duration: 2025-11-01–2027-10-31.
Project budget – 92 816 Eur.
The project is funded by the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), Contract No. S-PD-23-106/5T-1.
Projects’ production
Internships:
- From 1 to 19 April 2026, the researcher undertook a research visit at the University of Bordeaux, French Republic. During the stay, regular meetings and academic discussions were held with Prof. Dr Loïc Lerouge, Director of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Head of COMPTRASEC, Prof. Dr Isabelle Daugareilh, a member and former head of the Centre, as well as other Centre members, researchers and visiting fellows. The researcher also participated in a meeting and discussion organised by the institute with Dr Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University. During the research visit, the ongoing research project, the research already carried out within its framework and the interim results achieved were presented. The discussions addressed the legal issues under investigation, the French concept of the right to work-life balance, the direct establishment of this right in national regulation, occupational health issues, the legal regulation of working time and rest periods, the “right to disconnect”, the relationship between remote work and working from home, and the practical challenges they raise.
Promoting the results of scientific research:
- G. Taminskaitė-Kočiūnė. Flexible childcare leave period as a guarantee of work-family life balance. 16 March 2026., teise.pro.
Presentation of project results at conferences and other events:
- Presentation titled “Work-Life Balance as a Pillar of Sustainable Security,” delivered on April 16, 2026, at the international conference “Networking on Sustainable Security in the Dynamic Environment.”