Draft law amending the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Health Insurance Act (504 SE) - First Reading
Session: 15th Riigikogu, 5th session, plenary session
Date: 2025-01-15 17:50
Participating Politicians:
Total Speeches: 39
Membership: 15
Agenda Duration: 38m
AI Summaries: 39/39 Speeches (100.0%)
Analysis: Structured Analysis
Politicians Speaking Time
Politicians
Analysis
Summary
Under agenda item three, the Riigikogu considered the first reading of the draft law amending the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Health Insurance Act, initiated by the Estonian Centre Party faction. The presentation was given by esteemed colleague Lauri Laats from the Riigikogu speaker's chair. The draft law aims to establish a system for sickness benefit payments from July 1, 2025, that distributes the deductible over three days, five days, and onward, shifting responsibility to the state (Health Insurance Fund), while simultaneously increasing sickness benefits to 80% of the employee's average wage. The current system and the proposed changes in the draft law were clearly compared: the employee’s responsibility for the first day, the employer's burden for a fourth, and the remaining days’ compensation covered by the Health Insurance Fund.
Decisions Made 1
The steering committee submitted a proposal to reject draft law 504 on the first reading; with dissenting voices, the Riigikogu adopted the leadership's proposal. The voting result: 45 in favor, 10 against, 0 abstentions. Draft law 504 is dropped from the procedure.
Most Active Speaker
The most active speaker was 5VNfkRwGZMI, a member of the Estonian Centre Party faction; their presentation and responses to the draft largely shaped the discussion, and they are positioned on the political spectrum as "other" (not directly left or right), focusing on the government's economic issues and social safety net context.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
For the third item on the agenda, the draft bill No. 504, initiated by the Estonian Centre Party faction, to amend the Occupational Health and Safety and Health Insurance Acts, will be taken up for its first reading, with Lauri Laatsi as the rapporteur.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Lauri Laats presents a draft bill as part of Health Care Day, according to which, starting from July 1, 2025, the scheme for reimbursing sick days will change such that the employee bears the first day, the employer bears the second to the fourth, and from the fifth day the state Health Insurance Fund pays the compensation, and the sickness benefit would rise to 80 percent of the employee's average earnings, with the aim of encouraging taking sick leave and reducing economic costs, although the state would incur an additional 49.3 million euros – please adopt the draft bill.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
The deputy chairman Toomas Kivimägi thanked the attendees and said that the presentation was very thorough and adequate, but not for all colleagues, and asked Vadim Belobrovtsev to pose a question or add something.
Vadim Belobrovtsev
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
The question is how financial loss, when people stay home to treat themselves, affects Estonians' work ethic and what it usually ends up being.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Lauri Laats said that going to work while sick infects others, and although not all illnesses are contagious, colds spread in spring and especially in autumn, and if the entire workforce falls ill, it disrupts the company's day-to-day operations and affects the state budget, the economy and GDP.
Aseesimees Toomas Kivimägi
AI Summary
At the start of the speech, Urve Tiidus was asked to take the floor.
Urve Tiidus
Profiling Eesti Reformierakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
They ask how much increasing the sickness benefit rate to 80% will affect the budget, and whether any financial calculations have been made about it.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
The Ministry of Social Affairs' calculations show 49.3 million, and they cover both raising the percentage from 70% to 80% and shifting the obligation to reimburse daily allowances; such figures were discussed in our committee.
Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
The speaker emphasizes that Tallinn Hospital is both a health care issue and an economic issue, and asks whether the draft bill would help balance the government's decisions that increase people's health care costs and force people to work while ill, thereby harming health.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The vice-chairman Arvo Aller asked Anastasia Kovalenko-Kõlvart to speak.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Lauri Laats emphasizes that the healthier a society is, the greater the added value to the economy and to GDP, because the reduction in sick days lowers both direct and indirect costs and brings long-term benefits, although the state must invest more in it at the outset.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The vice-chairman Arvo Aller invites Karmen Joller to speak.
Karmen Joller
AI Summary
Karmen Joller asks in two parts: where does the 49 million euros for funding sickness benefits come from, and which service should be cut from it to obtain that money (for example, to keep Valga hospital tests afloat for years), and how large an impact would simplifying sick-leave certificates have on employers' budgets.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Lauri Laats describes that the bill places responsibility on the employer for three days (from the second to the fourth day), i.e., for three days, which reduces the burden compared with the current four-to-eighth-day period, notes the risk of taking a casual sick leave, but emphasizes the aim that when sick you need to rest and recover, and the added value to GDP and economic growth is greater than the direct cost of about 49.3 million euros, and he accuses the government that they have not kept the economy on the right track during 11 quarters and that a lack of funds prevents all planned measures from being implemented.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The vice-chairman invites Vladimir Arhipov to come forward.
Vladimir Arhipov
Profiling Fraktsiooni mittekuuluvad Riigikogu liikmedAI Summary
He asks whether implementing this change would reduce the spread of infectious diseases, because a worker who is only mildly ill does not take sick leave for fear of losing money and goes to work, and whether the change could encourage him to stay at home.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Lauri Laats says that the responsibility for sick-day benefits cannot remain solely with employees, and the state could take on a larger burden and provide relief to both employees and employers, because the current system is burdensome and economic growth will ultimately bring in more revenue.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The vice-chairman Arvo Aller asks Karmen Joller to come onto the stage.
Karmen Joller
AI Summary
Karmen Joller noted that the example with children is bad, because the child-care allowance is paid from the first day and she does not understand the logic of why GDP rises when people take more sickness absence certificates and are at home, while at the same time stressing that GDP actually rises when people work, and that employers already have the opportunity today to compensate for the lost income under favorable conditions, which is a good incentive from the state and may support GDP if the employer and employee can decide by agreement how and where the work is done.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Lauri Laats criticizes the Reform Party's inaction and tax increases, emphasizing preventive work, reducing sick leave, and promoting health and physical culture, through which a greater number of working hours would be achieved, thereby boosting the economy (GDP).
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
This speech is simply an invitation to give the floor to Andrei Korobeinik.
Andrei Korobeinik
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Andrei Korobeinik notes that although economically motivated going to work may initially boost GDP, if you come to work sick you infect others and, in the end, there are fewer people at work, and he asks whether his logic holds or whether going to work regardless of health can successfully advance the economy.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
Now is your time to act.
Andrei Korobeinik
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
The speaker discusses the length of the economic downturn that followed Haiti.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
When sick, you should stay at home and treat yourself, because illness reduces your ability to work, endangers others, and a healthy society brings benefits to the state, to employers and employees, and growth potential for the economy.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The vice-chairman Arvo Aller thanked and announced that there are no further questions.
Lauri Laats
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Lauri Laats asks the public to support him.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
Vice-Chairman Arvo Aller informs that the Social Committee member Karmen Joller will provide a briefing about the discussion that took place in the Steering Committee.
Karmen Joller
AI Summary
Karmen Joller describes that a substantive discussion held in the steering committee about the draft sick-leave bill highlighted funding and employers' costs issues, as well as doctors' views and various options, with which they arrived at the proposal to reject the draft and bring it to the plenary agenda on 20 November 2024, although its entry into force on 1 July 2025 was not realistically possible.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The vice-chairman Arvo Aller thanks the audience and invites questions, giving the floor to Andrei Korobeinik.
Andrei Korobeinik
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
Andrei Korobeinik noted that although the topic is not his field, there was discussion about whether the workplace is the best place to gain immunity from sick colleagues, and whether this is his or the commission's opinion.
Karmen Joller
AI Summary
Karmen Joller says that with a cough and a cold you don't always have to stay at home, and nowadays it is possible to agree with employers on solutions such as remote work, rearranging working hours, keeping distance, hand washing and wearing a mask, as well as employers' health promotion and rapid access to private medical care and vaccine provision, and although state support for health care costs isn't always considered necessary, the state has created incentives for this because the availability of health care services is currently difficult.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
In the speech, Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvarti is requested.
Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart
Profiling Eesti Keskerakonna fraktsioonAI Summary
The rapporteur accuses the Reform Party government over the past year of raising the price of prescription medicines, the fee for specialist visits, and the hospital bed-day charge, and of not supporting the draft bill and the establishment of Tallinn Hospital, and asks what they have actually done to improve health.
Karmen Joller
AI Summary
The author of the speech claims that these topics were not discussed and that the Reform Party's actions were not considered by the Social Committee.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The vice-chair thanks, ends the round of questions and opens the negotiations between factions on behalf of the Estonian Centre Party faction, Aleksandr Tšaplõgin.
Aleksandr Tšaplõgin
Profiling Fraktsiooni mittekuuluvad Riigikogu liikmedAI Summary
Alexander Chaplygin emphasizes that the draft changes sickness benefits so that the employee is responsible from the first day of illness, the employer pays from the second to the fourth day, and from the fifth day the Estonian Health Insurance Fund reimburses the benefits, and it has two reasons – to prevent forcing someone to work while sick, which endangers health, and to reduce the economy's losses by up to 2 billion euros per year – and he asks that the document be approved at least on economic grounds.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
Vice-Chairman Arvo Aller ended the negotiations and announced that the lead committee's proposal to reject Draft Bill 504 at the first reading must be put to a vote, and afterward preparations will begin.
Aseesimees Arvo Aller
AI Summary
The proposal found support (45 in favor, 10 against, 0 abstentions); Draft Bill 504 has been rejected and dropped from the proceedings; the meeting ended — have a peaceful evening!