Estonian Railways, union sign collective agreement for 2024

TALLINN - State-owned railway infrastructure company Estonian Railways (AS Eesti Raudtee) and the Estonian railway workers' trade union on Tuesday signed a collective agreement, in which the benefits for employees were agreed upon and the working and salary conditions of the employees of Estonian Railways were revised.

CEO Kaido Zimmermann said that there were many challenges in the railway sector in 2023, despite this, the company wants to offer its employees the certainty that they will be taken care of in the company in the coming years as well.

"After four months of negotiations, we reached a good compromise with the union. Salary conditions, non-monetary benefits as well as better work-life balance were revised," Zimmermann said.

"Labor peace is the most important thing for both the company and the employees, so we are glad that, despite the difficult financial conditions of the railway sector, we managed to sign the first collective agreement among the railway companies. Work with other companies is still ongoing," Oleg Tsubarov, chairman of the railway union, said.

According to him, apart from salary, the issues of work-life balance are one of the most relevant in modern society, and the trade union is very pleased that the part of work and rest time was analyzed very thoroughly and a good agreement was reached with Estonian Railways.

Estonian Railways employs a workforce of slightly over 700 people.