Subject: [SUSPECTED SPAM] Information on parenthood costs to parents' employers in Estonia?
From: "Merja Kauhanen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:05:52 +0200

Tähelepanu! Tegemist on välisvõrgust saabunud kirjaga.
Tundmatu saatja korral palume linke ja faile mitte avada.
Tähelepanu! Tegemist on välisvõrgust saabunud kirjaga.
Tundmatu saatja korral palume linke ja faile mitte avada.	Dear
recipient,
 
I and my colleague at Labore are conducting research for the Finnish
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health on a more even distribution of the
costs of parenthood (‘Vanhemmuuden kustannusten tasaisempi jakautuminen’
in Finnish) with a tight schedule. In our study our aim is to investigate
the distribution of costs from parenthood to the parents’ employers
(mothers’ and other parents’ employers) and compensation to the employers
for these parenthood costs in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Estonia
in comparison to Finland.
 
There is a lot of information available on the current parental leave
rules and policies to support parents from different countries, but there
is much less information/research on the total costs of parenthood to the
parents’ employers. 
 
We have already contacted a researcher in Estonia without getting any
reply. We then thought that the right place where we possibly could get
help with the following questions is Ministry of Social Affairs in
Estonia. So for this reason we are contacting [email-masked] hoping that you
might possibly help us with the names &amp; contact information in your
ministry to whom turn:
 
1.  What are the direct costs of parenthood to the parents’ employers
that are compensated to the employers, and, on the other hand, that are
not compensated to the employers in Estonia? We are interested here in the
direct costs - either based on legislation or collective agreements. In
other words, how are costs due to legislation compensated to the employers
and how costs due to collective agreements?
 
In Finland direct costs which are not compensated to the parents’
employers include, e.g.,: costs for temporary child care leave when a
child is sick, when employers pay full wage during parental leave based on
collective agreements and the parental leave benefits paid to the employer
do not fully 
cover these wage costs. 
 
2.  What challenges has been recognized in these costs and their
compensation in Estonia?
 
3.  Has there been any reforms in the policies in this regard in Estonia
or are there any plans to change policies with regard to compensation to
the employers for parenthood costs or with regard to distributing these
costs more evenly between mothers’ and other parents’ employers?

4.  Do you know if anyone has done calculations of the total costs of
parenthood to parents’ employers (including direct and indirect costs) in
Estonia? And how the costs for parents’ employers are divided between
mothers’ and other parents’ employers?
 
E.g. in Finland The Women Entrepreneurs of Finland have a parental leave
costs calculator at their webpage where employers can calculate total
costs including e.g. parental leave costs and  costs for temporary child
care leaves as well as the indirect costs
 
5.  In Finland indirect costs (e.g. hiring substitutes) to women’s
employers are compensated with a lump-sum payment of 2500 euros per an
employee taking a pregnancy leave. Is there any similar compensation in
use in Estonia to compensate indirect costs to the employers? Or are there
any alternative policies for compensating indirect costs to employers? 
 
We would appreciate very much if you could send us names &amp; contact
information in your ministry who could possibly  help us at short notice
with these questions.  
 
Best regards,
 
Merja Kauhanen
 
Merja Kauhanen
Chief researcher, PhD(Econ)
Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE
Arkadiankatu 7 (Economicum)  00100 Helsinki, Finland
tel.  &#43;358-40 940 1946