Needs and Possibilities for Changing the Legal Regulation of Collective Agreements in the Context of Labour Law Reform

Abstract

The implementation of the flexicurity policy and the wish to come out of the crisis have led to changes in the role of collective agreement in the EU States within a short period of time-mainly in the content of collective agreements as well as in relations between labour laws and contracts at different level. The question is to which extent the legal regulation of collective agreement corresponds to such changes and makes them possible.

Based on the above, the article aimed to study as to which extent the current Estonian legal regulation of CAs needs to be improved in order to secure the new role of CAs. Under the elements of the renewed role of CAs, the author views furnishing of the generally phrased norms of the labor law, agreeing on derogations from the imperative law to the detriment of the employees, as well as regulating the working conditions of atypical employees, and the new issues mainly regarding promotion of economy and employment.