Estonian teachers to hold nationwide one-hour warning strike on September 22
Estonia's teachers' union has called a countrywide warning strike over low wages, demanding minimum salaries reach the national average by 2027.
Education workers across Estonia will stage a nationwide warning strike on Tuesday, September 22, in protest against below-average pay in the teaching profession. The action was announced by the Tallinn Educational Personnel Union.
The strike will affect preschool institutions between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., and general education and vocational schools between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., with staff halting work for one hour during those windows.
Union's demands
The union is demanding that the minimum gross monthly salary for teachers at general education and vocational schools rise to at least €2,312 by 2027 — the projected level of Estonia's average wage. Kindergarten teachers' pay, it says, should reach at least 90 percent of that figure, or €2,081.
According to the union, governing parties have for years promised to bring teachers' salaries to a competitive level by 2027 but have failed to follow through. It says the minimum teacher salary has actually fallen six percentage points behind the national average wage in recent years, and that recent negotiations gave no guarantee salaries would rise at all next year.
Timed to the budget process
The timing of the strike is linked to Estonia's ongoing 2027 state budget preparations. A further round of negotiations on minimum teacher pay is scheduled for September 23, when the union expects the government to present a concrete salary proposal. The one-hour strike is intended to amplify teachers' demands ahead of that meeting.
On Monday, teachers joined rescue service workers in picketing outside the Riigikogu, Estonia's parliament, to protest low public sector wages more broadly.
