TALLINN — The Estonian Ministry of the Interior and emergency personnel union ROTAL signed a contract Thursday agreeing to a job cut of 22 EMT crew workers due a lack of financial resources.

Negotiations between the interior ministry and ROTAL were on-going for several weeks and came to an end Thursday with the signing of the contract, which settles the cut of 22 EMT crew workers and 16 office workers but leaves the minimum salaries for remaining staff unchanged.

The layoffs will be carried out from Jan. 20 to March 1. The Estonian government decided Wednesday as part of the 2010 budget to pump an extra 15 million krooni (€958,000) into the Estonian Rescue Board to avoid the job cuts. However Beata Perens, head of public relations department for the Estonian Rescue board said the rescue board needs 22.8 million krooni (€1.45 million) to cover the current staff.

“This wasn’t by far the needed amount to prevent all of the job cuts, but it reduced the need to cut more,” Perens told Baltic Reports.

Taavi Rõivas, chairman of Riigikogu finance committee and member of Estonian Reform Party said Wednesday that the government received the interior minister’s confirmation saying the 15 million krooni assured that no rescue workers will be let go due to lack of money.

“We have the interior minister’s confirmation that this 15 million krooni assures that no rescue workers will be fired because of lack of money,” Rõivas told Baltic Reports. “If the interior minister wants to do some structural changes in case it doesn’t affect the quality of the service, then it’s up to him to decide.”

However the Minister of the Interior Marko Pomerants rebuked this claim Thursday, saying that he never gave such guarantee.

“I asked for 22.8 million krooni from the fiscal commission and any figure larger than zero is helpful, but I haven’t granted not to cut back any jobs,” Pomerants told Baltic Reports.

The contract reads that the 22 rescue worker and 16 rescue official full-time positions will be eliminated, less than the initial plan in November to cut 135 employees from the EMT crews and rescue officials.

Kalle Liivamägi, head of the ROTAL union, said he’s unhappy about the cuts and that only 22 hours of the standard 24-hour work shift are paid in full.

“By 2011 we want to reach to the point when the salary will cover all their working time,” Liivamägi told Baltic Reports.