Summary

Since 8 December 2003 the Riigikogu has been reading the draft Employment Contracts Act that was initially planned to be adopted and implemented on Estonia’s accession to the European Union, i.e. as of 1 May 2004. However, the processing of the draft Act has been delayed for a number of reasons: at first the main focus was on improving its legal quality whereas starting from spring 2004 attention is being concentrated on its substance – namely, social partners have argued that the draft Act does not guarantee a balance between the rights and obligations of the parties to an employment contract and hence several amendment proposals have been tabled before the Riigikogu.

In the author’s opinion, the draft Act needs revision in terms of a large number of issues. The article addresses some of the problems connected with the draft Act. As the main drawbacks of the draft Act, the author points out a lack of a general conceptual approach and linguistic deficiency. The author also addresses individual legal problems. The article is based on the version of the draft Act tabled for the second reading (21.04.2004).