The Estonian Education Workers' Union (EHL) and the Ministry of Education will start negotiations next week. They will discuss the collective agreement for state general education schools. EHL wants teachers' salaries to rise next year.
EHL chairman Reemo Voltri said they want to maintain the previous salary increase. Currently, the minimum salary for teachers is 1970 euros. In state schools, it is 100 euros higher, i.e., 2070 euros. Next year, the minimum salary will increase by at least 3%. EHL wants the salaries of state school teachers to rise as well.
Voltri mentioned that the law requires negotiations to start three months before the end of the contract. Therefore, they are now starting new negotiations. EHL's ideal is to create a multi-year agreement. This would help avoid new negotiations every year.
Raino Liblik, head of the state schools department at the Ministry of Education and Research, said that EHL desires a salary increase, but not all teachers do. According to him, many teachers are not union members. Liblik emphasized that the negotiations are still in their early stages. He could not predict what results they would bring.
Liblik stated that the state schools' authority has done a lot to improve teachers' working conditions. He did not believe that state school teachers would be left in a worse situation than others. Currently, the increase in the minimum salary is modest.
Representatives of EHL and the ministry will meet next week in Tallinn at Tõnismäe 11.