TALO organises one-day strike

The Estonian Employees’ Unions’ Confederation (TALO) is to hold a one-day strike on 4 December 2004, to support its demands for pay increases for education and culture workers. The action follows the failure of negotiations over this issue with the government.

Estonia's second largest central trade union organisation – the Estonian Employees’ Unions’ Confederation (Eesti Teenistujate Ametiühingute Keskorganisatsioon, TALO) (EE0308101F) - has decided to organise a strike on 4 December 2003. The main purpose of the strike is to demand wage increases for employees with higher education working in the fields of education and culture. Today, the average wage of teachers, who are the main target group of the planned strike, constitutes only 75% of the national average wage. TALO’s wage claim for 2004 is EEK 7,300 per month for employees with higher education working full time in a position demanding higher education and financed from the state budget.

Background

In their agreements on wage arrangements signed in 2001 and 2002, both parties – the Ministry of Social Affairs, representing the government and TALO – agreed that the minimum wage rate for TALO members with a higher education, and doing a full-time job that requires such an education, should be at least at the level of the average national monthly wage. However, the government did not fulfil these commitments in either year. An 8% rise in the wage fund for employees in education has been promised by the government in its proposed draft budget for 2004. This is not considered satisfactory by TALO and the December strike is aimed at achieving its demands. TALO has organised protest actions by employees in the past. For example, in 1997, when the government did not meet the terms of a pay agreement and refused to bargain over wages for the following year, a warning strike was organised, in which 17,000 employees with higher education took part.

In October 2003, TALO and government delegations held several rounds of intensive negotiations, but no agreements were reached. The public conciliator was also involved in the negotiation process. On 12 November, the conciliator, Raivo Paavo, decided that all legal possibilities of resolving this conflict peacefully had been exhausted and gave TALO the right to organise a strike. According to the Collective Labour Dispute Resolution Act, the parties should consult the public conciliator if an agreement is not reached through negotiations and the threat of a disruption of work arises. Strikes which are not preceded by negotiations and conciliation proceedings are unlawful.

Planned action

TALO’s members are due to stop work for whole working day on 4 December and organise meetings at their workplaces. TALO will also organise an one-hour meeting and demonstration in front of the parliament building in Tallinn. According to the chair of TALO, Toivo Roosimaa, around 20,000 employees are expected to participate in the strike. Several member organisations of TALO have confirmed their participation in the strike. According to the chair of the Estonian Cultural Professional Union (Eesti Kultuuritöötajate Ametiliit, EKAL), Ago Tuuling, EKAL has about 1,400 members, but hopes that the strike will involve a total of about 4,500 employees working in the field of culture. Furthermore, staff at the country's six largest universities have decided to support the strike and stop their work for one day.

The Confederation of Estonian Trade Unions (Eesti Ametiühingute Keskliit, EAKL) (EE0308101F) has expressed its support for TALO's demands and given its member associations the freedom to decide on organising supportive actions. Some member organisations of EAKL have already announced that they will hold a 'support strike'. For example, the Estonian Transport and Road Workers' Trade Union (Eesti Transpordi- ja Teetöötajate Ametiühing, ETTA), has announced a plan to organise a one-hour support strike in larger cities in order to show its solidarity with TALO and its demands.

Reactions

Surprisingly, the Minister of Education and Research, Toivo Maimets, has declared in public that he supports TALO’s strike action. He was quoted in the Eesti Päevaleht daily newspaper as saying that the strike will help to attract public and politicians’ attention and increase public awareness of the problems in the educational system, as well as highlighting the urgent need to revise the current financing of the system.

The Estonian Employers’ Confederation (Eesti Tööandjate Keskliit, ETTK) (EE0310102F) has declared its solidarity with the government and disapproves of the actions being planned by TALO. In the employers' view, meeting TALO’s demands would distort the labour market and impair the competitiveness of the private sector. The Estonian labour market is small and the education sector constitutes about 10% of total employment. In this situation, a major wage increase in education will have a large affect on the national average wage. According to the deputy director of ETTK, Tarmo Kriis, it is absurd to peg the minimum wage of employees in education and culture to the national average wage, because wage increases in education will increase the average wage as well. Such an increase will also affect the labour market competitiveness of the private sector, especially in regions where the wage level is relatively low. The ETTK representative also mentioned that, in the employers' view, the behaviour of the public conciliator was not neutral in this case and that Mr Paavo had made biased public comments, while his final decision to give strike permission was made too readily.

Commentary

Pay in the education sector is a very sensitive topic in Estonia, as teachers form a relatively large and well-organised group of employees. Public opinion seems to support the TALO strike.

The Statistical Office of Estonia published recently average wage statistics, and the national average monthly wage for the most recent quarter was EEK 6,431. If we assume that wages increase by about 10% per year and that the average monthly wage for 2003 will be about EEK 6,600, then it is reasonable to assume that average wage in 2004 will be around EEK 7,300. However, it is also true that wage vary by a factor of about two to one between regions. It may thus cause problems for smaller municipalities if they meet TALO’s demand for higher wages. The government has a plan to reduce the income tax rate and increase the amount of non-taxable income. This makes it even more difficult in reality to increase subsidies to municipalities. In order to resolve the issue, the government should revise the political priorities of the 2004 state budget. (Raul Eamets and Kaia Philips, University of Tartu)