Postimees Digest, Monday, March 25
Please note that the article is more than five years old and belongs to our archive. We do not update the content of the archives, so it may be necessary to consult newer sources.
Hospitals can only afford to raise minimum salaries.
While Estonian hospitals raised the salary of medical workers from March 1 pursuant to the new collective agreement, several institutions said they only have the funds to raise minimum salary levels and that they are forced to cut the premiums of more experienced workers as Health Insurance Board service price hikes are not enough to realize the salary advance in full.
Puppet theater overlooked remuneration.
The Estonian Authors' Society (EAÜ) claims that the Estonian Puppet Theater has failed to report on its use of musical works subject to remuneration and pay associated fees over a period of three years. EAÜ specialist Airi Lillevälja told Postimees that the society sent the last bill to the theater in 2009 and that the latter has failed to report ever since. While the theater initially claimed it was not using the works of outside authors during the period in question, the heads of the puppet theater recently admitted using copyrighted music in five plays between September 2010 and November 2011. The theater has promised to supply the society with more precise information by March 28.
South Estonia’s hospitals lure Russian and Latvian patients
According to new hospital network development plan, county centres will keep emergency specialised medical care. There is no hurry, however, to wind down current 24/7 medical care with four standby specialised doctors providing delivery assistance.
Social minister Taavi Rõivas confirmed that delivery departments will not be forcefully closed, as long as hospitals are able to maintain them. «Money-wise, these would be such miniscule savings that there is no need to force it,» the minister said, related to the emotionally loaded topic.
Milk producers preparing for quotas to go
Not long ago, Urmas Varblane, professor of international business in University of Tartu, expressed his hopes in an interview given to Postimees, that Estonia’s milk production might, after the quotas go, be restored to the Soviet time glory days’ level of 1.2 million tonnes a year.
In agricultural ministry’s document «Estonian dairying strategy 2012–2020» the aim is set to increase milk production, from current near 700,000 tonnes, by one third by 2020. Which would mean a million tonnes a year. European Union does away with milk quotas in April, 2015.
The milk producers themselves have either just made their largest investments or are planning to do so in near future. However, they dare not forecast rapid increase of local milk production in post-quota times – having up to now never filled up the current quotas. These past ten years, Estonia has been stable at producing 500,000 to 650,000 tonnes of milk a year; the quota has been filled up to 85-94 per cent.