No. 12

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Mass Layoffs: International Practice and Estonia’s Experience

14 December 2005

Studies

RiTo No. 12, 2005

  • Andres Võrk

    Andres Võrk

    University of Tartu, Analyst

  • Lauri Leppik

    Lauri Leppik

    Senior Research Fellow, Estonian Institute for Population Studies, Tallinn University

  • Reelika Leetmaa

    Praxis Center for Policy Studies, program director

Since mass layoffs are a fairly new concept in Estonia’s regulation of working relations, we do not yet have practical experiences in this field.

The role of the public sector in responding to mass layoffs has been fairly modest and focused on verifying the legality of the termination of employment contracts and payment of benefits. There is generally no early intervention with regard to finding new jobs for laid-off employees, and systematic cooperation between the institutions, employees and employers of the public sector is rare. As a rule, social plans have been drafted in the case of several large scale dismissals of employees. Also, measures are set forth in some collective agreements for training workers to be laid off. Thus, the first thing is to bring about closer cooperation between the various parties. Development of employment market services targeted at mass layoffs should begin.

Full article in Estonian

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