Estonian trade unions call for separate labor court — ERR News
In Estonia, trade unions have called for the creation of a separate labor court, believing this would help resolve conflicts between employees and employers more quickly. At the same time, the country’s Ministry of Economic Affairs proposes improving the efficiency of the existing labor dispute committees, ERR News reports.
Changes for labor dispute committees
Employees and employers who do not want to go directly to court can refer a labor dispute to a labor dispute committee. Last year, these committees received nearly 2,500 applications. Most often, they concerned employers’ failure to pay agreed wages.
Liis Tynismaa, an adviser at the Ministry of Economic Affairs on labor relations and the working environment, said that a number of situations in labor disputes are currently not regulated in sufficient detail. According to her, committee chairs sometimes do not have a clear understanding of how to act correctly in a specific procedural situation, which can delay the consideration of cases.
The ministry wants to grant committees the right to issue default judgments in justified cases. Proceedings may, in particular, be delayed when an employee or employer fails to attend a hearing without a valid reason or does not respond to requests.
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Trade unions’ position
The Estonian Trade Union Confederation supports the possibility of default judgments. Nelli Loomets, a lawyer for the confederation, noted that most applications to the committees are filed by employees. She gave an example in which an employer had been informed about a hearing but did not attend it. Under such circumstances, an employee could receive a decision more quickly and turn to a bailiff.
At the same time, trade unions insist on establishing an independent labor court. In their view, the current system provides for four levels of review: a labor dispute committee, a county court, a circuit court and the Supreme Court. If a separate labor court’s decision had the status of a court ruling, a case could be appealed after that only to the circuit court and the Supreme Court.
The Estonian Employers’ Confederation did not provide ERR News with a comment, but said it considers the ministry’s proposed approach to resolving labor disputes to be correct.
