The annual collective agreement of the city of Taru with the union of local educators for next year has not yet been concluded, as there are still disagreements on several points. However, the city hopes to conclude an agreement, which means that Tartu schools cannot participate in the general strike of education workers.
“The contract is signed every year. However, negotiations for the 2024 collective agreement are currently underway. If we reach an agreement with the unions, we will probably be able to sign it in early January,” said Riho Raave, director of the department of Education of the Tartu City Government.
He stated that during the duration of the collective agreement there is labor peace and that therefore Tartu teachers can only participate in the three-day support strike. There are 30 municipal kindergartens and 31 general education schools in the city of Tartu, of which 22 are municipal schools.
According to Raave, the main discussion in the negotiations is what additional benefits and to what extent it is reasonable to agree on a collective agreement at municipal level, what educational institutions should include in their work organization rules or what they can offer employees in addition.
“We are trying to find a balance here, because the more resources are tied to the collective agreement, the fewer opportunities there are for institutions to obtain additional benefits. Whether it is employee salaries, the duration of holidays, measures that promote conciliation between family and professional life, such as health days, days off, and so on,” Rage said.
In terms of wages, the city only negotiates minimum rates, which are mandatory for all educational institutions, such as nurseries, hobby schools, general education schools and Tartu Applied College.
“Although the minimum wage for a school teacher is no higher in Tartu than in the country, it is still important to note that we must also ensure an equivalent salary for other workers in the education sector, such as support specialists and kindergarten teachers In relation to the minimum wage, the collective agreement also regulates, for example, the maximum workload for teachers of different education levels,” said Raave.
He underlined that the holidays of many categories of educational workers in Tartu are longer than those provided for by the law on holidays. “For example, in the new contract, all employees are given annual leave of 35 days (instead of 28 days), a kindergarten teacher’s vacation is 49 days (instead of the 41 days prescribed by law), etc. , etc. Basically there are three main issues: the minimum wage for various workers in the education sector, the duration of annual holidays and work and the benefits that allow for the reconciliation of family life,” explained Raave.
Reemo Voltri, head of the Estonian Education Workers Union (EHL), confirmed that in Tartu the issue mainly concerns additional benefits to the salary, which have been agreed in the collective agreement for years. “Now the question is whether to reduce them, increase them, specify them. Since here too there is confusion with the national minimum wage, this is also the reason why we did not get to the signature. However, as far as I know, the principles they are,” Voltri said.
However, if the EHL gets an agreement from the state for a larger increase in the minimum wage for education workers during 2024, this will certainly also be reflected in the salaries of Tartu teachers, Voltri said.
There are three other schools in Estonia that have a valid collective agreement or are in the process of signing a collective agreement with the local government: Suure-Jaani school with the municipal government of Põhja-Sakala, Viljandi Jakobson school with the city government of Viljandi and the Võsu school with a permanent collective contract with the municipal government of Haljala.
According to Article 11, paragraph 3 of the Collective Agreement Law, during the validity of the collective agreement the parties are obliged to comply with the conditions established in the collective agreement and not to declare a strike due to the change in the conditions established in the collective agreement. . Therefore, in the event of a strike, employees of educational institutions whose collective agreement contains the same conditions as stipulated for strike demands, in particular salary increases, cannot go on strike. If the wage is established in the collective agreement, in accordance with section 18 (2) of the Law on the Settlement of Collective Labor Disputes, the employee has the right to participate in a support strike. The support strike can last up to three days.
The indefinite strike of Estonian teachers is scheduled for January 22.
2023-12-18 10:58:00
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