Employee Representatives in Estonia. How Are They Perceived and What Are the Expectations by Employers in Estonia?

Abstract

The relationship between employers, trade unions and employees in Estonia is dramatically changing. Globalization, economic turbulence, increasing competition, new technologies, changing world of work and employees themselves with increasing level of education are the basis for the industrial relations change. A changed world of work enables the use of more flexible forms of work (flexible hours, telecommuting, virtual work), while the demands of work, and employees' competence, work intensity and tempo is increased, increasing the amount of information necessary use for the work, and the existence of the so-called "virtual reality" in communication at work. In many cases, the borders between employees' work time and non-work time become increasingly blurred; i.e. work has become independent from the working time and also from workplace and work does not depend on working hours and the workroom (workplace) and even not on the location. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)