Govt's wage policy must be consistent with advances in economy - unions

Photo: Toomas Huik

Estonian trade union leaders emphasized during their meeting with the parliamentary economic affairs committee on Tuesday that the wage policy of the government should be more consistent with the progress of the economy in order to avoid conflicts like the strikes of teachers and health care workers last year.

"If less money is planned into the state budget for pay increases than in the economy on the whole, wages will start to lag, which at one point will inevitably inflate into a strike bubble," the chairman of the Estonian Trade Union Confederation, Peep Peterson, said in a press release.

Given that this year wages in the public sector will grow about one-third less than in the economy on average, the difference should be compensated already in the budget of 2014, trade unions say. Therefore, budgetary allocations for wages should be increased in next year's state budget by at least 8 percent.

In addition to wages the meeting dealt with the system of continuing education and retraining, and motivating employers to make improvements in the work environment. "Investments in technology that save the health of employees should be favored through a lower social tax, for instance, if the state gives up classical occupational illness insurance," Peterson said.