Adopted by the general assembly of TALO,
in Tallinn, Resolution No 1 of 19.04.2005

Courses of action of the Estonian Employees' Unions' Confederation (TALO)
for the period 2005 – 2009

The courses of action of TALO proceed from the principles of defending the rights and interests of its members and all employees while following the historically developed and internationally recognised solidarity principles of the Trade Union movement.

TALO assumes that a democratic civil society capable of development has developed in Estonia, in which the legislative and executive power understands and respects the necessity and possibility of the coexistence of a free and open market economy with the social dimension in its widest sense.

When dealing with the notion of sociality in Estonia we particularly keep in mind the individually-centred approach to society, which respects personal liberty.

Through joint activity a secure system of cooperation with legislative, government and executive bodies, economic structures and employers' federations, parties and other third sector movements will be created, which is based on social dialogue, information and consultation, and which protects employees' vocational, professional, economic, social, public, educational and cultural interests and their respective political rights.

In order to achieve this, TALO:

• proceeds from the Constitution and other legislative acts of the Estonian Republic;
• follows the international legislative acts valid in the Estonian Republic;
• proceeds from the legislative acts regulating social policy and employment in the European Union;
• considers the requirements of the European Social Charter and European Charter of Fundamental Rights;
• follows the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations;
• relies on the generally accepted goals and principles of action of the ETUC and internationally recognised free trade unions' associations and the ILO.

Courses of action of TALO:

1. Defending and representing the rights and interests of its members and employees, social dialogue, and social partnership

1. applying the principles of equal partnership and bona fides while negotiating on labour relations and social guarantees with the Government of the Estonian Republic, local governments, their unions and other employers' federations;
2. forming commissions for bilateral and tripartite negotiations,
   socio-economic boards, working parties and other commissions, engaging continuously active experts;
3. delegating representatives of TALO to national institutions (employment boards, representatives at occupational safety inspections, occupational health boards, vocational boards, etc.);
4. applying forms of cooperation which follow the principles of participatory democracy, informing, consulting and real application of social dialogue, at the level of employees' organisations; promoting cooperation between member unions in common interests;
5. increasing the efficiency of control mechanisms in preparation of collective negotiations, concluding and executing collective agreements, using the possibilities offered by the register of collective agreements; defending common interests in wage negotiations, when needed helping member unions to solve problems in special situations;
6. making better use of the social and legal opportunities of bilateral and tripartite negotiations and the socio-economic board in order to defend employees' interests and rights;
7. defending the rights of employees and employees' associations in the Labour Inspectorate, the Courts, the public arbitrator, and other institutions;
8. informing and educating members of TALO and employees about the possibilities offered by legal protest actions, preparing and organising these if necessary; participating in elaboration of legal regulation concerning actions.

2. Education and training:

1. active participation in working out a contemporary training structure, to meet the needs of the labour market;
2. promoting the principle of lifelong learning, facilitating the way of thinking which will combine quality and competitiveness in education;
3. providing motivation of education by wages policy;
4. assisting in the process of developing common demands, knowledge and understandings in social and labour market partners;
5. foreseeing availability of employers' guaranteed funds for in-service training and retraining before collective redundancies, changes of structure, liquidation or restructuring;
6. approaching employers with application for co-funding joint training sessions on regulating labour relations and collective agreements;
7. facilitating the creation of opportunities for increasing professional qualification of the members of TALO;
8. continued participation in the process of devising, improving and applying the legislative acts on issuing and recognising certificates of professional competence. Active participation in the formation and activities of professional boards and bodies issuing certificates of professional competence;
9. helping to promote higher education; accreditation of curricula, issuing internationally acknowledged diplomas; solving problems concerning  additional special training for young people with Bachelor's Degree and working, and those who have been expelled to be brought back  to the study process;
10. helping  employees with higher education to have lifelong opportunity of studying; solving problems concerning  liquidation of special discount from resources meant for training of employees; counselling and financially supporting people who continue studies by working out a monetary model using State Development Program 2004-2006 and State Strategy for Lifelong Studies 2005-2008.

3. Economic and income policy:

1. involving the knowledge and social potential of members of the member unions of TALO in the process of solving questions of the economic, social, educational, health, cultural, sports and physical education, and other policies of the country. Developing cooperation with all interested persons and institutions;
2. delegating representatives of TALO to the working commissions, expert groups, etc. devising solutions to socially important questions, when necessary and according to agreements;
3. supporting an open economic policy, demanding from legislative and executive power more effective implementation of economic and social policy in the interest of all strata of the population;
4. in contributing to the development of a market economy, the stabilisation of the labour market and the avoidance of conflicts that may arise from the economic stratification of society, Trade Unions participate in the process of devising a contemporary open wage policy and applying a conception of fair wages;
5. following the principles of correlativity of productivity, quality and profitability of work in order to guarantee nationally and internationally competitive salaries;
6. forming a standing committee for the analysis of economic development and working out wages policy, and a board of experts;
7. following the principle of equal pay for equal work for men and women;
8. supporting the raising of the minimum wage, average wage level of the country and the ratio of wages relative to the level considered reasonable in European countries;
9. helping local governments increasing the revenue base through solving theoretical, legal and practical questions. Forming a joint commission in agreement with the Body for Cooperation of Local Governments.

4. Employment and labour policy, occupational safety and occupational health:

1. monitoring the demographic situation in Estonia and the labour market situation depending on it by involving specialists of TALO and informing the Government, local governments and employees' associations about it;
2. participating in international and local employment monitoring, making suggestions on more efficient implementation of a highly qualified labour force in the national as well as international open labour market;
3. contributing to the implementation of a steady national socio-economic principle of development;
4. cooperating with local governments to improve employment on a regional level. Initiating a system of keeping records of vacant jobs at the level of member associations and TALO;
5. participating in the work of republican and regional employment bodies and employment centres more actively;
6. assisting the system which takes into consideration the needs of training, in-service training, retraining and the labour market within the limits of available means;
7. demanding greater attention from employers to questions of the occupational health and safety of employees. Involving representatives of employees as required and participating in the boards of relevant organisations;
8. creating a working environment based on mutual trust and good practices of employers and employees;
9. assisting handicapped people and people with special needs to be involved in the labour market, and creating working conditions meeting their needs;
10. defending the special interests of social guarantees for certain groups of employees, particularly ballet artists, singer-soloists, professional musicians, etc;
11. considering more the changes taking place in labour market and labour relations (flexible work relations, working at home, flexible working hours, etc.) and substitution of traditional work relations fixed in a contract with new relations (liabilities). In spite of changes in work relations employees should be protected by a legal or contractual regulation.

5. Social security, social protection:

1.      following the European social model and respective principles of European Social Charter in questions of social security and social protection;

2.      supporting the joining of Estonia with the European Code of Social Security;

3.      demanding fulfilment of the requirements of the European Social Charter from the Government and other institutions, and mediating relevant information to the public;

4.      continuing pension reform and protecting special interests of the members of TALO in the process of reform (provisional pensions, emeritus pensions, etc.);

5.      assisting in improvement of the system of socially understandable and economically reasonable subsidies and benefits;

6.      participating in devising and directing the ideologies and principles of activity of foundations, insurance companies and other credit institutions which are connected with the social sphere, and if possible taking part in the work of their managing bodies;

7.      forming and putting into operation a standing commission on social work and a group of experts.

6. Participation of Trade Unions in legislative drafting and in the process of following legislation:

1.      participating as an active and equal partner in drafting or changing of legislation concerning education, labour relations, employment, salary, social security, social protection and other areas directly related to employees;

2.      seeking to progress and pass legislative acts granting the rights of employees in the spheres of culture, education, health, science, physical education and sport, the press, etc. through persons and institutions having a right of legislative initiative;

3.      promoting the equality of parties in the labour market and partners in social dialogue, and the development of relations backed by collective agreement by means of legislation;

4.      following generally accepted international legislative acts;

5.      creating conditions for the employment of a lawyer by TALO and establishing a legal commission (lawyers' council);

6.      cooperating with other associations of trade unions and all interested parties and institutions in the field of legislative drafting;

7.      promoting cooperation between TALO, its member unions and NETLEX;

8.      the board of lawyers has to compile both paper and electronic information bulletins, dealing with new legislation and the problems related to their implementation, and to make them available to the members of TALO.

7. Development of the organisation:

1.      engaging a commission for development strategy of the organisation and working out development prospects;

2.      increasing membership of TALO and generating the motivation for membership;

3.      involving young people in the activity of trade and professional unions, establishing a youth commission;

4.      improving the administrative structure and increasing administrative capability;

5.      when possible creating additional posts (legal service, international relations and project service, public relations and information service, etc.);

6.      unifying the functions of the employees of member unions (accounting, clerical service, information service, etc.), in order to optimise the financial and technical resources necessary for fulfilling these functions;

7.      motivating the activity of elected trade union leaders;

8.      establishing the financial resources necessary for fulfilling compulsory functions by means of membership fees;

9.      cooperating with other associations of trade unions in Estonia in order to meet the common interests of employees and solve common problems.

8. Information, public relations:

1.      proceeding from the Public Information Act;

2.      actively communicating with the press in order to explain the principle of the activity of Trade Unions and TALO to the public;

3.      drafting and publishing a TALO newsletter on paper and making its electronic version continually available (depending on the amount of material);

4.      explaining the role, goals, means of achieving objectives, etc. of Trade Unions to the public by means of different media channels. Approaching Estonian Radio and Estonian Television in order to introduce relevant programmes or parts of programmes;

5.      reacting promptly to socially sensitive and vital topics, presenting the vision of Trade Unions as a whole, or motivated special views compared with other social partners if a need arises;

6.      compiling information materials, reviews, references about materials obtained at seminars, conferences, workshops, or on the Internet, and making these available via e-mail or on paper;

7.      approaching the universities of Estonia in order to introduce Trade Union topics into the research and term papers of students;

8.      guaranteeing  a good access to information on TALO web page on the Internet.

9. Participating in political life, relations with parties and the third sector:

1.      establishing a commission dealing with the problems of the third sector and arranging cooperation between Trade Unions and other third sector representatives;

2.      cooperating in questions of interest with all structures of society, including political parties, while retaining political independence. Concluding agreements of cooperation or protocols of common interests if necessary;

3.      in order to realise the common needs of the members of TALO and all employees, to cooperate with all trade and professional unions, even those that do not belong to TALO as well as with Trade Union associations active in Estonia. The cooperation should not hinder the realisation of special interests and needs of the parties;

4.      developing a functioning system of cooperation with local governments and their associations. Establishing a standing commission dealing with the problems of local governments and trade unions.

10. International trade union cooperation, representation of Trade Unions in EU institutions:

1.      one of the main aims of international relations is to import Trade Union training programmes or to allow our representatives to participate in training programmes, seminars, etc, abroad;

2.      continuing cooperation with ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation), applying for TALO being involved in all working bodies of ETUC;

3.      continuing informative cooperation with ICFTU (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions);

4.      taking a more active part in the work of NFS/CNTU (Council of Nordic Trade Unions);

5.      cooperating actively primarily with the AKAVA of Finland, SACO of Sweden, and other central organisations and, in case of common interests (free movement of the labour force, approval of diplomas or professional standards, etc.), also with similar Trade Union central organisations in other European countries;

6.      continuing cooperation with the BTUC (Baltic Trade Union Council) in order to coordinate the activity of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian trade unions and assisting partners from the point of view of solidarity;

7.      creating effective, mutually satisfactory activity of the representatives of TALO in the  ILO Council, forming a committee of cooperation if necessary;

8.      cooperating with the representations of the United Nations residing in Estonia;

9.      representing the interests of TALO member unions and their members in tripartite counselling committees of EU and EC, analyzing and introducing the work and activities of the committee;

10.  analyzing both internal and EU problems, offering solutions, participating in different phases of decision making  relying on possibly wide circle of participators;

11.  supporting  more flexible and active social- and labour market policy; paying more attention to lifelong studies as necessary means to increase full employment and emphasising the importance of social dialogue to apply successful means of full employment more effectively;

12.  supporting application and reaching the aims of Lisbon Strategy;

13.  supporting the main aims of EU education policy: creating conditions for transition of knowledge based economy and developing human resource to support competitive labour market; considering the importance of creating  unified  education space in EU that helps to increase competition and flexibility of labour force;

14.  supporting the initiatives aimed at internationally competitive scientific- and research development, elaboration of human resource and infrastructure;

15.  paying more attention to supporting and evaluating intellectual heritage and considering  peculiarities of small countries when developing all European cultural cooperation.

11. Funding of TALO:

1.      bringing the membership fee into correlation with the volume of tasks needing to be fulfilled;

2.      in order to be able to fund basic Trade Union activities and training, finding possibilities of submitting project applications to domestic and international organisations, foundations, etc.;

3.      seeking co-funding from employers for training programmes offering mutual interest.

To improve the activities of TALO commissions, working groups, expert boards, etc. are formed if the need arises to fulfil single or continuous functions.

According to the courses of action of TALO for the period 2005-2009 the executive board will devise and adopt annual activity plans, of which the member unions of TALO will be informed.