State institutions not overly enthusiastic about moving jobs away from Tallinn
According to a survey conducted by ERR's Estonian news portal, 13 out of 32 government institutions the Ministry of Finance suggested could move staff away from Tallinn are actually against the idea, or don't think the suggestion is reasonable.
While an analysis conducted by the ministry suggested that these institutions and agencies could move a certain number of their jobs away from Tallinn, the institutions that returned the questionnaire predominantly did not support the initiative. Here are a few examples of the responses ERR received:
The director general of the Competition Board, Mart Ots, told ERR that only 45 people worked at the competition authority, and that breaking up so small an institution wouldn’t be a good idea. If any relocation had to take place, it should concern his entire agency, he said.
Indrek Halliste, director general of the Veterinary and Food Board, said that two in three workers of his agency were already outside Tallinn, and that the Veterinary and Food Board saw no need to further cut the number of its Tallinn-based jobs.
Executives at the Land Board said that 53% of their workers were already based outside the capital.
Spokesman for the National Audit Office, Toomas Mattson, said to ERR that setting up the offices of the National Audit Office outside the capital would be an activity entirely lacking a point.
The Patent Office said that its day-to-day operations were conducted from Tallinn, and that this was where its experts are based too.
The Institute of Estonian Language meanwhile said that all its partners were located in Tallinn and that a move didn’t make sense because of this.
The National Heritage Board said that relocating would not necessarily be good, and taking jobs away from Tallinn and thereby forcing people to relocate may undermine the organization of its work.
The Office of the Chancellor of Justice said that the nature of a constitutional institution required cooperation with other institutions, and that the idea to take jobs out of the capital had not been discussed with the chancellor herself.
Sille Talvet of Enterprise Estonia said that 15% of their employees worked in Tartu already now, and that this ratio could be increased further if necessary to better serve customers.
Spokespeople for the State Shared Services Center said that their institution had been tasked by the government last year to relocate 50% of its workforce away from Tallinn by 2018. At present, one in three of its employees were based outside Tallinn, and work towards meeting the goal set by the government continued.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: ERR, BNS