The Riigikogu The unicameral parliament of Estonia. adopted the law amending the Employment Contracts Act initiated by the government, according to which employers will have the opportunity to conclude more short-term employment contracts with the unemployed, which will provide employees with greater protection than employment and agency contracts.
The current procedure allows a fixed-term employment contract to be concluded consecutively, that is, with an interval of less than two months, a maximum of two times or to be extended once. Due to restrictive regulations, employers may enter into a contract with other obligations, such as an agency or employment contract, instead of an employment contract. In this case, however, the employee is deprived of labor law protection, for example, working time restrictions, minimum wage, vacation or occupational safety requirements are not applied.
The amendments to the law allow the conclusion of fixed-term employment contracts of up to eight days within six months without limitation, but it must be taken into account that if a new fixed-term employment contract is concluded after a six-month period, the contract becomes open-ended.