Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip attacked the utilty of the "social" jobs, saying they undermined the principles of the free market.
TALLINN — The Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has attacked government-sponsored “social jobs” saying they would undermine market competition, but the Tallinn city government says the plan will keep the unemployed from destitution.
“These social jobs, which as the example of Tallinn shows are clearly non-productive jobs, violate market situation. It will be very hard for the mayor of Tallinn to tell at some point these people who have been hired to the social jobs now that now the economic crisis is over and your contribution is not needed anymore,” Ansip said, adding that neither the European Commission nor other international institutions support creating the jobs.
The Tallinn municipality responded by saying that private companies create the social jobs and deal with productivity and contract length.
“The main objectives are to help to maintain working habits for those people who are likely to lose them faster; and to provide a salary opportunity for doing something useful for the community instead of just giving social aid,” municipal business development manager Mart Repnau told Baltic Reports.
“It is the responsibility and in interest of the employer. In private sector they do regular work, just hiring unemployed is supported by the city. In municipal companies it is the companies responsibility to supervise the workers,” Repnau said adding that contracts for the work will run between six and 12 months.
The City of Tallinn Economic Recession Assistance Package is intended to help both the unemployed and businesses in the capital city. Under the plan, given a five percent unemployment rate in Tallinn, 1,000 minimum-wage jobs are being created in municipal companies.
The jobs are for citizens officially residing in Tallinn and registered as unemployed at the Labor Market Board.
Social jobs include cleaning public transport vehicles and tram tracks, selling and checking tickets in public transport, cleaning of roads and sidewalks, maintaining municipal parks and other similar jobs.
“It is important to mention that there are several kinds of social employment schemes used by Tallinn City Government: salary grants to private companies, jobs created at municipal companies, and public work organized by city district administrations,” Repnau said.
Salary grants for private companies are set at a maximum of 5,800 krooni (€371) per person per month, including payroll taxes. The grant may not exceed two-thirds of the payroll costs of the person. Bus and tram cleaners and trip attendants receive between 4,350 and 4,450 krooni per month, Repnau said.
Ansip said society would be better served by retraining and educating the unemployed, many of which have low qualifications.
“I am quite convinced that tram floors were cleaned before the Tallinn city government decided to create social jobs for tram cleaners and I do not think that they are now 30 times cleaner than they were before,” Ansip said.
