Lithuania proposes scrapping civil service age cap and restoring benefits

Lithuania’s Interior Ministry has submitted a draft law to the government aimed at making the civil service more attractive, recruiting and retaining skilled staff, and giving public institutions more flexibility in managing their workforce, LRT reported.

The proposal would remove the current age limit of 65 for civil servants in office. Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas said the changes would help retain experienced professionals while also opening the service to specialists who gained experience in other fields.

The draft would allow civil servants to hold another civil service position in the same or a different institution, or to work under an employment contract. They could also spend part of their working time in a civil service role at another institution.

Under the proposal, people who leave the civil service could restore their status and return without a competition within five years. This would also apply to career civil servants who left after the 2024 civil service reform. Experienced statutory officers, diplomats, intelligence officers and professional military personnel could also be transferred to civil service positions; such transfers are currently allowed only temporarily.

The ministry also proposes restoring a seniority allowance for up to 30 years of service and giving institution heads greater discretion over pay. They could raise an employee’s salary coefficient to attract a specialist from another institution, increase coefficients when an institution has saved funds, or set a higher coefficient for a new employee after a probationary period based on their performance. The draft would also raise salary coefficients for mayors.

The proposed social guarantees would ensure civil servants keep their positions and pay when they travel on official business, attend court or a medical institution, go to a funeral, or train other public-sector employees.