State school teachers seek larger pay rise for next year

Teachers at state-run schools in Estonia are seeking a larger pay rise next year, but the Ministry of Education and Research says current budget limits make their proposal unrealistic, ERR reports.

Education workers’ representatives want the minimum teacher salary raised to Estonia’s forecast average salary. The proposal was discussed last week at the opening meeting of collective agreement negotiations with Education Minister Kristina Kallas.

Raino Liblik, head of the ministry’s state schools department, said the talks had only just begun. He said the union’s proposal was significantly higher than before and was not realistic for the ministry at present.

Kristjan Rühl, chair of the newly established State General Education Schools Education Workers’ Union, warned that state school teachers could fall behind teachers at municipal schools. Many municipal schools provide supplementary pay of 50 to 150 euros, depending on the municipality, while state schools do not receive similar additional salary support.

The negotiations also addressed how class size should affect teachers’ pay and workload. Rühl said teachers at small schools should not be disadvantaged because their classes have fewer pupils. Liblik said the workload involved in teaching a class of 36 pupils differs from that of teaching a class of 18.

The new union was formed to represent state school employees in negotiations with the ministry. Talks are due to resume in November. The ministry has not yet made a counterproposal but is considering a smaller pay rise.