The administrative court of second instance had found that the case did not fall within its jurisdiction and, consequently, it was referred to the court of first instance.

The director of the State Opera, Ott Maaten, told the ETV news program “Aktuaalne kaamera” (AK) that more than 90 percent of the organization’s staff are now vaccinated, adding that only a handful of people affected by the directive requiring vaccination were still not vaccinated – in other words most of the original resistant had now been vaccinated.

Maaten told AK: “They are creative people in the orchestra and choir, but they are also people who do not appear on stage, but rather work in customer and audience services,” adding that the opera will make a decision on these people in the new year.

Originally, 70 employees of the opera house, whose home is the Estonian Theater in central Tallinn, requested an exemption from the vaccination requirement when it was introduced, although only one person carried the case in court.

Margus Allikmaa, board member of the performing arts association (Etendusasutuste liit), said smaller theaters have not required staff to be vaccinated, in case this undermines the end of operations if some staff refused and had to leave – but also because the risk levels were lower, he said.

“Naturally the Estonian theater is a big hall and their risk analysis showed that with such a large number of people in such a big theater it is very reasonable for everyone to get vaccinated,” Allikmaa said. .

Unvaccinated national opera workers have been verbally informed that their contracts expire on December 31, AK reported.

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