Workers expect faster pay rise as prices have been rising long - Estonian union body

Photo: SCANPIX

The rise in average wages and salaries in the first quarter of 2013 can be seen as satisfactory but the expectations of employees are higher because price increases have been cumulating over a long period of time, said the president of the Estonian Trade Union Confederation (EAKL), Peep Peterson.

"One can be content with the fact that the wage increase exceeds the forecast but the expectations of an average employee were probably higher – mainly due to a long-time cumulation of the increase of prices, which is yet to be covered with wage increases in some sectors of the economy and in some businesses," Peterson said when commenting on wages data for the first quarter published by Statistics Estonia on Friday.

According to trade unions, to achieve a faster increase negotiations have to be initiated in businessess on raising of labor efficiency, which may mean additional investments or rearrangement of management. The expectation of wage increases is also an item on the agenda of the Monday meeting between Peterson and the new manager of the Confederation of Employers, Toomas Tamsar.

If the yearly increase in wages and salaries was at least six percent, the Estonian average wages and salaries would reach the current average level of the European Union in 15 years, said Peterson. In case of a yearly increase of six percent, the Estonian average would reach the estimated average level of the European Union in 25 years, said Peterson.

"If these goals are shifted closer, it might be an argument for many employees to stay in Estonia," said Peterson.

"The wages and salaries increase was definitely helped along by collective agreements in several fields, for example in health care and energy," said EAKL's secretary for wages and collective bargaining, Kaja Toomsalu. At the same time, the 10 percent increase of minimum wages and salaries should also not be forgotten, she added.

According to EAKL, the average wages and salaries of the construction sector, trade sector, health care and culture fields are increasingly lagging behind the national average wage. In all these fields the increase in average wages and salaries is slower than the increase of the average wage in all sectors taken together.

According to EAKL, the widening of the gap in wages of the construction sector can be attributed to the absence of a trade union and the sector's decreased workload. In the trade sector, the reason may lie in "grueling competition" and, according to EAKL, a collective agreement in the whole trade sector has to be made. The collective agreement of the health care field has not functioned to the full extent either.

According to Statistics Estonia, the average monthly gross wages increased by 6.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the first quarter of 2012, and the average hourly gross wages by 9.1 percent. The average monthly gross wages were 900 euros and the average hourly gross wages 5.63 euros.