New message : Hallo, you're fired

“It made it, the new employment contract law,” announces Estonian dailyEesti Päevaleht. The new legislation significantly loosens up dismissal notice requirements in the country: henceforth employers can simply sack staff by “dismissal message”, i.e. even by SMS or e-mail. “One thing is now clear,” comments the paper: “Employer-employee relations are going to be as tense as the tightly-tuned strings of an instrument, the reason being that firing is a lot easier and less expensive now.” The law is based on the principle that management and labour are equal partners and that everything is a matter of negotiation. “Easier said than done,” warns Eesti Päevaleht. “Employees with no rudimentary knowledge [of the law] or negotiating skills are going to be in a precarious plight.”