Health Insurance Fund chief: healthcare pay rises must reflect real possibilities
The head of the Health Insurance Fund's management board, Siiri Lahe, said regarding the healthcare unions' demands for pay increases that they do responsible and important work and their pay must keep pace with the times, but at the same time one must proceed from real possibilities.
Healthcare workers' unions announced on Friday that they are turning to the national conciliator, because collective bargaining negotiations with the Health Insurance Fund — in which they sought a rise in minimum pay faster than the Estonian average for the next two years — ended without results.
Siiri Lahe said that healthcare workers do very important and responsible work for the people of Estonia, and their pay must keep pace with the times.
"At the same time, one must proceed from real possibilities and ensure that health insurance funding is sufficient both for salaries and for the availability of necessary healthcare services and medicines for people," Lahe said.
She emphasized that the Health Insurance Fund's forecast for the next four years continues to account for pay increases for healthcare workers in line with the projected growth of Estonia's average wage.
"According to the current plan, the next increase in the wage component included in healthcare service prices will be postponed by nine months — from April 2027 to January 2028," the Health Insurance Fund chief added.
The Nurses Union, the Healthcare Workers' Professional Union, the Doctors' Union, the Clinical Psychologists' and Clinical Speech Therapists' Professional Union, and the Physiotherapists' Union — who signed the healthcare workers' appeal — cited as the reason for the failure of negotiations the decision by Social Minister Karmen Joller and the Health Insurance Fund that in 2027 the amount needed to raise minimum wages for healthcare workers will be used to bring the Health Insurance Fund's budget into balance.
The Nurses Union pointed out that although the average nurse's salary is often highlighted, they earn it through many overtime hours, working nights, weekends and holidays, and often at multiple jobs.
The union also noted that the base salary of care workers is more than one‑third lower than the national average, and their pay approaches the average only thanks to night and overtime work.
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Editor: Karin Koppel, Argo Ideon
