Health fund gives healthcare workers month to sign collective agreement
The supervisory board of the Estonian Health Insurance Fund did not support the healthcare sector's proposal to increase its workers' wages before concluding a collective agreement, giving them one month to sign one.
The fund's supervisory board decided on Friday that, for greater certainty, the sector would be given another month to conclude a collective agreement, fund communications manager Katrin Romanenkov told BNS. The board will revisit the issue in mid-March.
Members of the supervisory board took the preliminary agreement reached on Feb. 16 as a sign of goodwill to arrive at a collective agreement but deemed the agreement which did not include an obligation to maintain industrial peace insufficient for long-term decisions, the Health Insurance Fund said.
The supervisory body debated on Friday what to do with the €23.6 million earmarked in the fund's budget for a possible pay hike; discussions were regarding whether and how to increase wages as of April 1.
Organizations representing the Estonian healthcare sector reached an agreement on Thursday on a pay increase without concluding a collective agreement and which must be approved by the Health Insurance Fund to be implemented. The fund's supervisory body, however, did not support it.
"As assurances and guarantees on the part of the state are still absent, a proper collective agreement has not been signed," Secretary General of the Estonian Medical Association Katrin Rehemaa had told BNS on Thursday, adding that time was running out.
"We postponed the pay increase from the beginning of the year to April 1 as it is," she continued. "The respective funds have been reserved in the Health Insurance Fund. The supervisory board of the Health Insurance Fund will hold a meeting tomorrow at which they must decide whether and how to change the price list including its pay component from April 1."
The Minister of Health and Labour has given to understand in the media that the supervisory board of the Health Insurance Fund lacks the basis upon which to make this decision unless a collective agreement has been signed, so it must be hoped that this preliminary agreement is sufficient in showing that these numbers have indeed been agreed upon, Rehemaa added.
The Health Insurance Fund plans to spend €23 million on increasing healthcare workers' pay this year. Minister of Health and Labour Jevgeni Ossinovski said earlier this month however, that wages could not be raised without a collective agreement.
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS