Kiri

Suur-Ameerika 1 / 10122 Tallinn / ESTONIA

Phone: +372 625 6342 / Fax: +372 631 3660 / E-mail: [email protected] / http://www.mkm.ee

European Commission

Employment Committee

Our Ref: 05.01.2026 No 11-1/15-1

Implementation of the Council

Recommendation on strengthening social

dialogue in the EU

Dear Sir/Madam, According to the Council Recommendation of 12 June 2023 on strengthening social dialogue in

the European Union, Member States must submit to the Commission a list of measures which are

taken or have already been taken in each Member State to implement the Recommendation.

We apologize for the delay in submitting information regarding Estonia and we hereby provide

aforementioned data.

According to the Recommendation, in case that information inquired is already submitted to the

Commission under other reporting mechanisms, Member States can refer to those reports when

compiling the list. Consequently, we would like to point out that Estonia has established a

collective bargaining action plan to promote collective bargaining in accordance with Directive

(EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on adequate

minimum wages in the EU. We have notified the Commission of the action plan on 08.10.2025.

The action plan includes Estonia’s main priorities for the following years regarding collective

bargaining and social dialogue (e.g. amendments in legal acts, promotion and information

activities etc.). The notification also included recent information about collective bargaining

statistics. In addition, we would like to draw your attention to the correlation table regarding

Directive 2022/2041 sent to the Commission in November 2024 which further contained

explanation and measures regarding strengthening both collective bargaining and social dialogue.

We find it essential to involve social partners as well as other relevant stakeholders in the

development of different policy measures in order to develop legislation and policies that truly

respond to the needs of both employers and workers. In Estonia it is mandatory by law. Social

partners and other stakeholders must always be given the opportunity to give feedback to new

reforms and policies with the aim to ensure the best possible quality and legitimacy of the

decisions. This remains key to strong social dialogue. In addition, we have various specific

practices in place to ensure social dialogue, e.g. social partners are involved in different

institutional bodies (e.g. supervisory board of Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund; work of

labour dispute committees as lay assessors) and social partners negotiate the national minimum

wage.

There’s also sufficient legislation in place to strengthen both social dialogue and collective

bargaining, for example establishing procedures for collective bargaining at all levels, stipulating

protective measures for workers and trade union members, promoting mechanisms to resolve

2 (2)

labour disputes etc. (all acts in force available in English):

 Collective Agreements Act;

 Trade Unions Act;

 Employees’ Trustee Act;

 Collective Labour Dispute Resolution Act;

 Employment Contracts Act;

 Labour Dispute Resolution Act.

We hope this information gives further insight into how we are and have been implementing the

Recommendation in Estonia. We remain at your disposal for any further questions and

clarifications.

With best regards, (signed digitally)

Ulla Saar

Deputy Secretary General for

Labour and Equality Policies

Maria-Helena Rahumets

+372 5916 2680 [email protected]

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