PAYROLL REGULATIONS: ESTONIA

Minimum wage

Pursuant to Employment Contracts Act, an employee may not be paid less than the minimum wage established by the Government of the Republic of Estonia.

In addition to the minimum wage, the posted worker must also be guaranteed the payment of other types of wages, which are mandatory under Estonian law and extended collective agreements. Such types of wages can be considered, for example, additional wages for working on a public holiday and wages for night work.

Legal working hours

The Employment Contracts Act poses limitations to protect the employee’s health, which are daily, weekly, and general working time limit. This may not be exceeded even when the employee agrees to work more.

Employee may not work more than 48 hours on the average per week with the calculation period until:

• 4 months, or
• 12 months for health care, welfare, agriculture and tourism staff (with a collective agreement).

If the employee happens to be on a vacation or sick leave, or refuses to work on some other legally stipulated grounds, the employer must subtract the corresponding time from the calculation period.

Minimum number of days/hours off:

The employee must have at least 11-hours of continuous rest time during a 24-hour time period. This means that, together with overtime, employees can work 13 hours at the maximum in one shift.

The employees must have at least 48-hours of continuous rest per week. In the case of totalled working time calculation, the employee must have at least 36-hours of continuous rest.

Breaks

The employees must be provided a break during the workday for eating and resting. After working 6 hours, the employee is entitled to rest of at least 30 minutes, but the employer can enable the 30-minute break to the employee also sooner.

Leave

An employee is entitled to annual holiday of at least 28 calendar days per calendar year. The duration of the holiday does not depend on whether the employee works part-time or full-time. Minors and employees with partial or no work ability are entitled by law to annual holiday of 35 calendar days, of which seven calendar days are reimbursed to the employer by the Social Insurance Board.

Law prescribes cases when, on certain conditions, the vacation could in some cases be interrupted or postponed. Both the employer and the employee have the right to interrupt or postpone the vacation.

When interrupting or postponing the vacation, the employee is entitled to use the unused part of the vacation as soon as the circumstances which triggered the interruption or postponing have ended, or at other suitable time (on mutual agreement between parties).

Notification requirement as per The Posted Workers Directive

 Employees posted to Estonia must be registered with the Labour Inspectorate. The employer of a posted worker must register the employees being posted to Estonia prior to the employee actually starting work in Estonia.