Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Estonia (Ratification: 1994)

Article 4 of the Convention. Promotion of collective bargaining. The Committee had previously requested the Government to provide information on any measures taken or envisaged to promote collecting bargaining and had requested the Government to provide information on the exercise of collective bargaining in practice, including the number of collective agreements concluded by sector and the number of workers covered. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that: (i) through the use of different funding instruments, including the European Social Fund, it has supported the social partners in raising their capacity, their negotiation skills and in educating their members and trade unions shop stewards about labour law; and (ii) the Basic Principles of the current Government Coalition for 2019–23 sets out to organize trilateral meetings on issues regarding the labour market, and to elaborate the principles for the organization of strikes and negotiations to improve the regulation of employees’ and employers’ rights and obligations. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that according to the Estonian Labour Force Survey, 4.7 per cent of the Estonian workforce was unionized in 2017, and as stated in the Database of collective agreements (KLAK), in 2018, an estimated 89,233 workers were covered by collective agreements. The Committee observes that, according to Statistics Estonia, in the second quarter of 2019 there were 667,700 employed persons in the country. The above-mentioned number of workers covered by collective agreements would thus represent 13.3 per cent of the total of employed workers in Estonia. The Committee therefore requests the Government to promote the full development and utilization of collective bargaining mechanisms so as to increase the number of workers covered by collective agreements, and to provide information on any measures taken or envisaged in this regard. The Committee further requests the Government to keep providing information on the number of workers covered by collective agreements.