Collective bargaining between healthcare unions and employers, including hospitals and the ambulance service, continue to founder on the issue of nurses rights, ETV news show Aktuaalne kaamera (AK) reported Friday night.
While most other healthcare workers representatives have signed up to a deal, nurses representatives continue to negotiate separately.
Media reports at various times during the pandemic have said the Estonian healthcare system has on occasion been nearing melt-down, most recently in late March when coroanvirus rates were much higher than at present, and many Tallinn ambulances having to re-route to hospitals as far afield as Pärnu.
Following the compilation of a draft collective agreement over a year ago, a group of nurses belonging to the union opted to engage in a separate round of negotiations from last summer. This union on Thursday again rejected the chance to sign-up to the collective agreement in its current form, AK reported.