Trade unions and most parties represented in parliament have criticized a manifesto with proposals that the Estonian Employers’ Confederation has unveiled by the end of August. Political parties criticized the proposal to raise the pension age from the current level of age 63 to at least 67 and to ban support strikes that are allowed under the Collective Labour Dispute Resolution Act. Harry Taliga, president of the Confederation of Trade Unions, stated that employers aim to change the country’s principles of social security. The employers’ manifesto proposes to change the burden of social tax to fall on the employees instead of employers, by cap social tax payments to three average monthly wages, lower corporate taxes and abolish social tax from business income. Taliga asserted, “This will by no means improve employment rates nor bring high-paid jobs to Estonia.” The current debate has to be seen at the backdrop of a fall of Estonia’s gross domestic product (GDP) of 14% in 2009 and an unemployment rate of nearly 20% in the first quarter of 2010.
English: http://balticbusinessnews.com/article/2010/08/31/Employers_proposals_draw ...
http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/26878/
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/06/articles/ee1006019i.htm
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