In order to strengthen the use of the national language in the labour market on Thursday, 19 September the Saeima adopted in the third reading amendments to the Labour Law. The amendments will protect the right of employees to use the national language in the performance of their duties and not to be discriminated against by unreasonable demands for knowledge of a foreign language.

It will henceforth be stipulated in the law that knowledge of a foreign language is not considered to be reasonably necessary for the performance of work duties if the work is related to the production of goods, provision of services or other activities in the internal market of Latvia. This provision will be waived if the knowledge of a foreign language is objectively justified for the performance of the work, for example, in cases where the work is related to foreign countries.

The authors of the amendments explain that the amendments are intended to ensure that in Latvia, as a member state of the European Union, employees would not be required to have a working knowledge of Russian, and they also refer to the discrimination that currently exists in the labour market against young people who do not have sufficient knowledge of Russian.

If a job advertisement requires foreign language skills, it will also have to include a justification of the need for it. However, the employer will not be allowed to ask about foreign language skills in a job interview if they are not essential for the performance of the job.

Saeima Press Service