The Tallinn branch of aircraft maintenance company Magnetic MRO employs over 400 people of 29 different nationalities. Its employees include both holders of gray passports and people with five-year work permits, which can be extended for ten years at a time. There is no shortage of specialists at the company.

Risto Mäeots, CEO of Magnetic MRO, said the company has established its own educational program where it trains Estonian citizens. However, according to recent studies, Estonia still has a shortage of over 2,000 workers each year with insufficient numbers being trained in the country to fill that gap.

The immigration quota in Estonia is approximately 1,300 people per year. The Ministry of the Interior has now prepared a draft law that would allow up to 2,600 people to be brought to Estonia each year in addition to that quota. If the general condition is that foreign workers have to be paid the average wage, then companies in nine of Estonia's industrial sectors would now have the opportunity to pay 80 percent of the average wage.

Minister of the Interior Igor Taro (Eesti 200) emphasized that the plans do not mean cheap labor could be brought into Estonia from abroad.

"80 percent the Estonian average [wage] is still around twice the minimum wage and corresponds to the level that skilled workers across Estonia receive in those sectors where this additional labor is needed," Taro said.

In addition to specialists, Magnetic MRO also needs unskilled and cheaper workers. The company's CEO, Risto Mäeots, said that these types of employees cannot currently be found in Estonia.

"I think it is very important for the Estonian economy that we bring these people in. I would like to emphasize that we are not bringing anyone here to Estonia to be a burden, so to speak. We are bringing in people who work with their hands and their heads," said Mäeots.

"The general perception that we might see this as something bad and that we are putting a burden onto Estonian taxpayers is, in my view, very narrow-minded," he added.

However, trade unions say the ministry has not taken their proposals into account and the changes will instead pave the way for the import of cheap labor.

Oleg Tšubarov, head of the railway workers' union, emphasized that there is currently a shortage of public transport drivers in Estonia. Although young people would be interested in driving jobs, they are not willing to do so for the wages currently being offered. "This means that we really ought to take a look in the mirror and start paying normal wages. We already have this labor force on the labor market," Tšubarov said.

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