Employers refuse new minimum wage deal

TALLINN - Talks between Estonian trade unions and employers over the next year's minimum pay will continue in November after the Confederation of Estonian employers refused to sign an agreement that would have established a minimum monthly wage of 4,800 kroons (307 euros).

Harri Taliga, leader of the Confederation of Estonian Trade Unions, told the Baltic News Service, Oct 25, that the employers did not sign the agreement drawn up by trade unions but did not make their own alternative proposition, either.

Taliga said the employers would discuss the trade unions' proposal at a meeting of their extended board on November 7.

The employers' present offer is 4,000 kroons; the minimum wage is currently 3,600 kroons. In EAKL's opinion there are about 70,000 recipients of minimum wages in Estonia.

But Taliga added that the Statistical Office had estimated that 6 percent of employees, or 40,000 people, received minumum wages at present; in the opinion of the Tax Board 90,000 to 100,000 people receive minimum pay.

Enn Veskimagi, chairman of the extended board of the employers' confederation, told BNS that about 15,000 people were paid minumum wages in the country.