Dispute over civil service pay
In April 2004, negotiations over civil service pay between the Estonian government and the EAKL trade union confederation failed to produce significant results, with the government rejecting union demands for a 20% increase for lower-paid groups. Union members subsequently picketed government offices in protest. Meanwhile, further disagreement has broken out over government plans to restructure the civil service pay system.
On 13 April 2004, the Confederation of Estonian Trade Unions (Eesti Ametiühingute Keskliit, EAKL) (EE0308101F) and the government started bipartite negotiations over wage conditions for civil servants for 2005. EAKL’s aim was to attain a pay rise of 20% for civil servants for 2005 in 25 lower salary groups (there are 35 salary groups for civil servants in Estonia). However, the government took the position that such a general pay rise was unthinkable, because it is not possible to use the same criterion in measuring each worker’s effort. The last such agreement between the government and EAKL was concluded in 2001. In 2003, EAKL tried to obtain a pay rise of 6% for civil servants in lower salary groups, but it did not succeed and no agreement was signed.
As the negotiations did not produce any significant results, EAKL decided to hold a picket to support its demands. The picket, held in front of the seat of the government and the Ministry of Finance on 15 April 2004, was low-key and did not receive much attention from the members of government and the media. Over 80 members of the State and Self-government Institutions’ Workers’ Trade Union (Riigi- ja Omavalitsusasutuste Töötajate Ametiühingute Liit, ROTAL) took part in the picket and their main demands were that the government should conclude a pay agreement with the union and stop freezing the payroll fund. In addition, they wanted to draw attention to the fact that, according to Estonian legislation, civil servants do not have the right to strike (which is seen as breaching international labour standards).
The government opposes the idea of increasing the salary of all civil servants by 20%, but accepts that the pay system in force is outdated and there is need to work out new principles for the system. The Estonian Employers’ Confederation (Eesti Tööandjate Keskliit, ETTK) (EE0310102F) has also been very negative about the pay demand, as public officials already have very high social guarantees. Employers argue that growing bureaucracy and the extensive costs of the public sector are restraining the development of the Estonian economy. ETTK states that public sector should increase its quality, not its quantity, and does not regard it as right that public sector salaries should constitute a 'motor' for increasing the average wage of the country and applying pressure to the level of wages in the part of the private sector that is open to international competition.
On 22 April, the government launched discussion of a new concept document for developing the public service. The aim is to make the remuneration of civil servants more flexible, and this document should form the basis for a new draft Public Service Act. The concept stipulates that the pay system should take into account more than at present work performance, and that pay should be based on the employees’ performance-appraisal results. Therefore, the salary scale and some additional remuneration elements (additional pay for academic degrees, job tenure etc) that the government considers unreasonable should be eliminated. The fact that the government plans to eliminate the salary scale has been greeted with astonishment by the ROTAL union, because during the negotiations between EAKL and the government it was concluded that a pay agreement for 2005 should be based on the salary scale as it stands in 2004. The trade unions are also irritated by the fact that the government has not discussed the new concept with the social partners.