Estonia: Union says Telia collective agreement an example for others

TALLINN – The Estonian Communication and Service Workers' Trade Union (ESTAL) has said that the collective agreement concluded with the telecommunications company Telia Eesti is a good example of social dialogue and should serve as an example for others to follow.

Telia Eesti is a good example of an employer that attaches value to social dialogue and the wellbeing of employees. Among other things, the company pays under the collective agreement all its full time workers at least two times the national minimum wage, the chairman of ESTAL, Kadri Kangur, said.

"As trade union we must highlight and recognize worker-friendly businesses, because they support the kind of work culture that the unions are standing up for," Kangur said.

She said that Telia Eesti wanted to offer its employees flexible work hours, as a result of which extra pay for work done in the evening was scrapped. It is now up to the employees to decide whether they wish to come to work earlier and leave earlier, or arrive and leave later. In addition employees were given the possibility to get an additional paid day-off if a national holidays falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, which means that they can enjoy a long weekend.

Kangur said that most other companies on the Estonian labor market were failing to catch up with the example set by Telia with the collective agreement.

A trade union has been active at Telia Eesti and its predecessors for decades and social dialogue has never broken down at the company despite all the mergers and ownership changes, the union leader added.

Telia Eesti is a company of Telia Company Group, which is headquartered in Sweden. Telia Eesti employs more than 1,700 people.