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Rasa Repeckaité began work as a legal counsel at Nordea's head office in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius in the autumn of 2002. This is her first real job since graduating from university.
At the NFU seminar on European Companies that was held in Denmark in the autumn, she was one of the two elected representatives for the more than 100 Nordea employees in Lithuania.
"I was probably elected because this has a lot to do with legal regulations and because I showed interest in the information meeting held in Vilnius by the Nordea trade unions," she says.
Rasa hopes that the plans to form a European Company will lead to greater integration and more contacts between employees in different countries.
"Business is already connected in different aspects, but people are still divided. It would be good if there were more opportunities to exchange experience, establish relations and improve co-operation," she says.
As in the other Baltic countries there is no trade union at the bank, but Rasa can see that a trade union may be needed one day.
"During the Soviet era, trade unions were mostly compulsory, and people don't take gladly the things they are forced to do. Also due to the personal experience or common perception of the formality of trade unions, people still don't know what they can practically gain out of the union membership. We are mostly concerned with helping the company to grow and take a greater market share," she says.
In the future the situation can change, although Rasa believes that this will take time and that good arguments are needed to convince the employees that they have something to gain by joining a trade union. Already today, however, she feels that some form of formal or informal structure is required for contacts between the management and the employees.
"We need more information and more influence. The employees have common problems that need to be solved and someone must represent them," she says.
It is usually not a problem for an employee to speak to his or her boss about working conditions, but it is up to the individual concerned to take the initiative.
The same thing applies to pay.
"Pay is entirely individually based. You can always ask for a certain salary, but that doesn't mean you will get it. I don't know what my colleagues earn and I don't want to say what I earn. Remuneration is treated as confidential information," says Rasa.
Although Nordea is growing in Lithuania, she still feels that resources are limited. Many employees stay late at the office and work unpaid overtime, and there has been cases when it was difficult for people to take a holiday when they wanted.
Bengt Rolfer
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