Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Medicine, Wages

The Doctors' Association, the Professional Association for Healthcare Workers and Nurses Union said after the talks that employers follow Health Insurance Fund draft budget and all proposals of employees to pay higher wages for overtime work, for work at night and weekends, were rejected, citing lack of finances.

"The agreement on reducing workload that was concluded two years ago has not yet materialized, and the proposed salary, where for example the salary for nurses would form 74% of Estonia's average wage after the "big rise", is clearly insufficient to ensure that healthcare institutions have the necessary personnel," the professional associations said in a press release. The professional associations refer to the Health Insurance Fund's undistributed profits of EUR 147 million, which could be used to meet the demands of healthcare professionals.

The Hospitals Union, representative of the other side, considers the demands of doctors a utopia. Hospitals' Union head Urmas Sule said that the difference between wishes and possibilities is, unfortunately, very big, but no provisions of the agreement have yet been rejected.