The Estonian Parliament, after an initially unsuccessful legislative process that ended with a presidential veto, has now adopted amendments to the Employment Contracts Act. One of the key elements of these amendments is the introduction of the flexible working time agreement.

Previously, employers and employees often had to sign amendments to employment contracts to temporarily adjust working hours on a weekly or monthly basis. The new legislation gives the parties the option to adjust working time more flexibly and conveniently, without the need to formalize each change through a separate contract addendum.

Requirements for Concluding a Flexible Working Time Agreement

If the parties want to conclude a new employment contract or amend an existing one to introduce a flexible working time arrangement, the agreement must be in writing and include the following elements:

the agreed number of working hours;
the number of additional hours;
the minimum notice period for assigning additional hours;
information confirming that the employee has the right to refuse additional hours;
a clear statement that the employee must confirm acceptance of additional hours each time in a form that allows written reproduction (e.g., e‑mail).

With Which Employees May Flexible Working Time Agreements Be Concluded?

Such an agreement cannot be made with every employee. The law sets two mandatory conditions:

the employee’s hourly wage must be at least 1.2 times the minimum wage established by the Government of the Republic;
the agreed number of working hours must be at least 10 hours within a seven‑day period.

Note: The flexible working time agreement may not remain valid under its original terms indefinitely. According to the Employment Contracts Act, if during the past six months an employee has, for the majority of the time, worked more than the agreed working hours, the employee has the right to request amendment of the flexible working time agreement and an increase of the agreed working hours. If the employer and the employee do not reach agreement on the new amount of agreed working hours, the employee’s agreed working time, as of the submission of the application to the employer, is the employee’s average number of working hours over a period of seven days during the last six months.

Important rights and keeping account of working time:

The employee always has the right to refuse additional hours; acceptance must be confirmed, for example, by e‑mail.
Overtime is counted when the employee works beyond the agreed hours and the additional hours.
The employer who is required to keep working time records (and to draw up work schedules in the case of summarized working time) must maintain records in a way that clearly distinguishes:
agreed working hours,
additional hours,
overtime.