The governing coalition reached an agreement on the teachers' pay rise on Monday evening, after the clock had already struck and the state budget procedure documents had been sent to the Riigikogu.

This leaves an extra €8 million in wage increases out of the budget. The Riigikogu's board is now looking for a solution.

"The education minister came in yesterday and announced that she found €8 million in her ministry's finances to increase pay for teachers. We agreed to that, but the Social Democrats wanted an additional €1.5 million for local governments to pay kindergarten teachers. We didn't have that kind of money, so we couldn't reach an agreement on time. This means that the documents in the state parliament are currently in their previous form, but a solution is being found on how still to incorporate the rise in teachers' wages into the budget," Erkki Keldo, chair of the Reform Party group, explained.

The deadline for sending out the procedural documents was 5 p.m., Monday.

As this substantive decision was taken after the budget had already been sent to parliament, it was not possible, and is not possible right now, to introduce this amendment," Toomas Kivimägi (Reform), the deputy speaker said.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!