Doctors and healthcare workers, who began negotiating for raises last fall, will have to settle for a much smaller raise than they had hoped for this year. While the Estonian Health Insurance Fund (EHIF) initially claimed that there was no money whatsoever available to fund a raise, additional millions of funding has since been found.

Ahead of last fall's pay negotiations, Estonian Medical Association (EAL) secretary general Katrin Rehemaa said that medical professionals' salaries should rise by the same amount as MPs' salaries. Last week's government decision, however, will only allow EHIF to raise medical professionals' salaries by 1.5 percent.

Although the percentage increase is small, it will still cost €12.2 million to implement.

"When we drew up the budget last fall, and EHIF was authorized to use €167 million of undistributed surplus to cover and maintain the availability of healthcare services, then indeed, we did not leave any money in reserve for healthcare workers' pay raises," explained EHIF board member Pille Banhard.

"We see that, for example, the use of sick leave has been lower in the first two months [of the year], and as a result, we reviewed our budget lines, evaluated them and we will not reduce availability, or worsen our budget position," she continued. "In other words, we are taking these funds from other healthcare cost lines in our budget."

According to Estonian Hospitals Association (EHL) chief Urmas Sule, half of the calculation is now done, as the collective agreement is for a two-year period.

"We are set on reaching an agreement by April 1, but the agreement covers two years," Sule explained. "There is this year's agreement, which is confirmed with the service price list, and there is next year. For next year, we'll need to agree on the details of how we will finance next year's pay raise."

Initially, EHIF was unable to specify where the funds for the 2026 pay raise would come from.

"Once we sign the collective agreement, we can assess what the need will be for next year," said Banhard. "Indeed, this analysis and preparation will begin at the end of summer and in the fall, alongside the drawing up of the state budget."

Referring to the uncertainty over the funding of next year's pay raise, the doctors' representative, Rehemaa, declined to comment on Sunday to ETV's "Aktuaalne kaamera."

Public conciliator Meelis Virkebau, however, believes that the new collective agreement will be signed before April 1.

"Typically, we first sign an agreement on the conditions for the collective agreement, which gives employers in healthcare the confidence that the promised amount of money will indeed be allocated," Virkebau explained. "This agreement on the conditions for the collective agreement needs the signatures of the EHIF board chair and the minister of health."

As far as they know, he added, the minister of health is currently out of the country.

"I wouldn't want to talk too much about the numbers before the agreement is signed," the public conciliator said. "But I will say that that 1.5 percent is intended for this year."

The collective agreement currently in force was signed in 2023, raising minimum hourly wages by nearly 20 percent that year and by another 10 percent in 2024.

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