Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Estonia (Ratification: 1994)

Article 4 of the Convention. Promotion of collective bargaining. Extension of collective agreements. The Committee notes that the Government informs that, following decision 2-18-7821 of the Supreme Court of Estonia of 15 June 2020, amendments to the Collective Agreements Act came into force in November 2021 with respect to the regulation for extension of sectoral and national collective agreements. The Committee understands that the Supreme Court decision required to ensure the conformity of the legislation with the constitutionally protected freedom of entrepreneurship while ensuring social partners’ capacity and responsibility to negotiate working conditions and make them legally binding for the whole industry or the entire economy. The Committees notes that the amended law subjects the extension of collective agreements to a series of requirements that, inter alia, include: (i) the agreement of the parties to the collective agreement; (ii) the fulfilment of specific representativeness criteria and; (iii), the realization of a consultation process. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the application in practice of the referred amendments and on its possible effects on the coverage rate of collective bargaining in the country.