Bilateral negotiations

In Estonia the bilateral negotiations are held between employers’ and employees’ central organisations as well as between the government and the unions and between the government and entrepreneurial organisations.

The relations of the government and entrepreneurs’ central organisations

Several questions concerning economic policy have been discussed between the government and employers and entrepreneurs, besides others issues the priorities of Estonian economic growth, the industrial policy and the tax policy affecting entrepreneurship.

In the summer of 1999 the government and four entrepreneurial establishments - the Estonian Chamber of Trade and Industry, the Estonian Confederation of Employers and Industry, the Association of Estonian large-scale Enterprises and Estonian Small and Middle Sized Enterprises Association - signed a memo by which the government granted the entrepreneurial establishments the right to partake in the boards and surveillance of the strategically important enterprises. The need to employ more principles of democratic participation in the improvement of the entrepreneurial environment and in directing the state and economy, as well as mutual exchange of information, consulting and participating in the decision making, were acknowledged in the memorandum. Therefore it was agreed to hold assemblies at least once in two months on the governmental level and once in three months on the municipal level.

On December 14, 2000 the prime minister of Estonia and the representatives of entrepreneurial establishments signed an appendix of the co-operation memo, where the regulations and form of the settled meetings were specified.

The relations between the employers and employees

On the bilateral consultations of the employers and employees shared principles and standpoints from the spheres of social partnership, industrial policy and social security have been confirmed. One of these agreements, signed on March 17, 1999 by the Estonian Confederation of Employers and Industry and Estonian Confederation of Unions was a shared project "The development of the Social Dialogue in Estonia". The project depicts the priorities of the social dialogue enlargement, preconditions for development and social dialogue for creating new jobs.