Mining Company Unwilling to Insure Against Workplace Hazards
The law on mandatory insurance of employees against workplace accidents and occupational diseases has taken unbelievably long - 16 years - to prepare, and it is still not ready. Eesti Energia Kaevandused, a large mining company, has for years been vying with its former employees in the courts, preferring paying lawyers' bills to voluntarily compensating for health loss.
According to Lembit Auväärt, an attorney representing several miners, there have been cases where the mining company has won 'by default' - the claimants died before the court reached a decision.
Labor Inspectorate data on Ida-Viru County show that five to ten people are diagnosed with on-the-job illnesses in the heavily industrialized region every year. Starting this fall, the Health Insurance Fund stopped paying for the diagnostic procedures required to present the employer with a compensation claim, so that people have to foot the 200-euro bill for the tests from their meagre salaries or state pensions.
Liisa Oviir-Mokrik, legal counselor for Eesti Energia AS explained the company's position to rus.err.ee, saying that extending insurance coverage to miners would only be an option if a state-regulated insurance scheme existed. Offering private insurance would be unreasonably expensive for the company, she said, not wishing to specify the cost.
Eesti Energia Kaevandused was also unable to say, citing a lack of such statistics, how much they had paid as a result of court rulings in the last five years.
The former CEO of Eesti Energia Kaevandused Lembit Kaljuvee was more straightforward in saying that even though the number of people applying for compensation is relatively small, the company's policy of taking these cases to court instead of just settling with the employees who present the doctor's certificate has been very effective - namely, in keeping the number of applications down.
A representative of the private insurance company ERGO Argo Argel told rus.err.ee that as a rule, it is local subsidiaries of foreign companies and locals conducting business abroad that are in the habit of taking out private policies to insure their staff against workplace accidents and occupational diseases.
In total, about 70 people per year are diagnosed with job-related illnesses in the country, whereas the corresponding figure in neighboring Finland, with a population of just four times that of Estonia, is in the thousands.
Most European countries have legislation on insurance for occupational accidents and diseases that requires each company to pay into a state-organized insurance fund. Estonian experts have said the additional financial burden on companies would not be politically acceptable.