Additional mandatory conditions of the employment contract

In preparing employment contracts, employers should take note of the list of mandatory information that must be included in the employment contract laid down in section 5 of the Employment Contracts Act. The incorporation of Directive 2019/1152 into Estonian law extends this list of mandatory information and increases the burden of explanation on employers.

In addition to the previous list of working conditions, starting from 1 August, employers must also provide employees with a description of the following working conditions in writing:

• the institutions receiving contributions and payment and any protection relating to their payment;
• the training entitlement and other benefits provided by the employer, if agreed;
• other types of leave compensated by the employer in addition to annual leave, including, for example, parental and study leave;
• the form allowing the written declaration of the cancellation of the employment contract and the obligation to state the reasons (the employer must always justify the cancellation; the employee must only do so in the case of extraordinary termination);
• the arrangements and compensation for overtime;
• the duration of the probationary period;
• for temporary agency workers, the identity of the user undertakings;
• for summarised working time, the conditions for changing the work schedule.

If the above information has not been communicated to the employee before starting work, the employee has the right request it at any time. The employer must provide the information within two weeks after receiving a request.

While current law requires the employer to communicate any changes to the employee within one month of making the changes, from 1 August changes must be communicated on the day on which they take effect at the latest.

The employer is not required to communicate the mandatory information to the employee in writing if both the previously agreed and actual working time of the employee are equal to, or less than, an average of three hours per week over four consecutive weeks. However, in the case of an employment contract that is valid for two weeks or more, a written employment contract must be signed, setting out the essential terms and conditions agreed on between the parties, including the workload and remuneration. If the term of the employment contract is less than two weeks, a written employment contract is not required.