At the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, 18 December, during a debate on social dialogue, collective bargaining and the right to strike in the EU, MEP Jana Toom said that other countries should never follow Estonia's example.
“I believe nowhere in our Union is the need for Social Dialogue more urgent, unfortunately, than in my home country, Estonia,” Jana Toom stated. “The country with the lowest collective bargaining coverage in the whole EU. Around 90% of the workforce is not covered by collective bargaining and only 6% are members of a union. So working people do not have their say as our economy is undergoing major changes.
Here is the example. After 10 days of striking, our teachers managed to get 17 euros increase in their monthly salary, which is a joke. The way forward is already written in European legislation: The minimum wage directive which requires strengthening the social partners and an action plan to increase collective bargaining coverage.
I see very few steps being made by Estonia, despite being the worst performer. The government has only pointed to already existing legislation saying they’ve done enough already. What a joke again. So those of you who are sceptical about this directive, collective bargaining and trade unions as such, look at us. Don’t follow our example!”
You can watch Jana Toom's speech here.
Estimated collective bargaining coverage (%) and predominant level of agreements by EU country for 2019. Green is company-level agreements, purple is company-level and sector-level/regional or higher-level agreements, light blue is sector-level/regional or higher-level agreements, blue is other forms of collective agreements. Source: “Moving with the times: Emerging practices and provisions in collective bargaining”.