Under bill of amendments to the Employment Contracts Act submitted by the MKM for a round of approval, employers would be able to agree on additional hours with employees acquiring a basic school, high school or higher education, people of pensionable age or who have retired early, have reduced work ability or whose collective agreement provides for the opportunity to conclude an agreement for flexible working time.

When concluding an agreement for flexible working time, an employee would be able to work up to ten additional hours per seven-day period on top of their agreed-upon hours.

With such an agreement, the employment contract could stipulate, for example, that an employee works part time, 20-30 hours a week, of which 20 must always be guaranteed and ten are overtime. This, however, would require that several conditions be met.

For example, the employee's hourly wage must equal at least 1.2 times the minimum hourly wage, which in the case of this year is €5.83. Likewise, this agreement must be in writing, and overtime and working hours combined may not exceed full-time hours.

Thus, it would be possible to agree on working hours of 30 hours a week and 10 hours overtime, however if the agreement is a 35-hour workweek, then that overtime may not exceed an additional five hours, otherwise it would exceed full-time hours.

The employee must also retain the right to refuse to work overtime.

Under these amendments, it would not be possible to agree to more than ten hours of overtime work, however it would be possible to agree to fewer overtime hours.

In the case of flexible working time, it would also be possible to use total hours worked. This means that if an employee's calculation period for hours worked is, for example, four months in length, then the overtime hours worked during this period may be totaled within that same period.

According to the letter of explanation accompanying the bill, a flexible working time agreement would allow the employer to cope with fluctuations in the latter's workload and labor needs as well as the employee's ability to work varying from one period to another.

The amendment aims to reduce employees' inclination to conclude other contracts for the provision of services under the law of obligations on top of their employment contract, which do not provide them with adequate social guarantees or protections.

The bill also stipulates that an employee must be allowed to rest every day and every week; the only exception to this would be in the case of a collective agreement with total working hours-based arrangements, in which it would be permitted to ensure only weekly rest time.

Employment contracts must specify either full- or part-time hours, and, in the latter case, must include specific hours during which the worker must be available to work. Although this principle already applies, according to the bill, agreements exist in practice which deviate from the purpose of this law.

Under this bill, it would be prohibited to impose a restraint of trade clause on an employee working under an agreement for flexible working time, as in the case of variable income, it is vital that the employee retains the opportunity to earn income elsewhere as well.

The bill highlights that last March, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that daily rest time should not constitute part of weekly rest time, but rather precede it. This means that an employee must be ensured both daily and weekly rest periods at least once in a seven-day period. This new interpretation has presented businesses with difficulties in scheduling working and rest time.

This has led to the changes proposed in the bill, which takes into account employers' wish for more flexibility in scheduling working and rest hours as well as employees' need for longer periods of rest.

Once in a seven-day period, employees must be guaranteed rest time of either 11+48 hours of rest or, in the case of totaled working hours, 11+36 hours of rest.

Exceptions may be made either by collective agreement or if the employer grants employees consecutive daily and weekly rest periods twice a calendar month.

According to figures from Statistics Estonia, nearly 105,000 people worked part time last year, accounting for nearly 15 of all those employed.

The bill is tied to the current coalition agreement, which specifies that legislation regulating employment would be updated and made more flexible.

The ministry is accepting feedback on the bill through June 21.

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