Adam, Georg

In the run-up to this year’s autumn collective bargaining [1] round, a controversy arose over the possible re-design of Austria’s traditional wage bargaining formula in the future. The debate was further fuelled in August 2007 when the Federal Minister for Financial Affairs and Vice-Chancellor, Wilhelm Molterer of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP [2]), suggested doubling the current number of employees covered by any form of financial participation [3] by 2010. At present, around 6% of Austria’s employees hold some kind of shares in their employer company, and 5% receive productivity-based bonuses or profit-related pay. According to the ÖVP’s expectations, the proportion of employees covered by financial participation schemes should be raised to 20% by the end of the current legislative period in 2010. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/collective-bargaining [2] http://www.oevp.at/ [3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/financial-participation

Currently, thousands of asylum seekers from around the world are expecting a decision from the relevant Austrian authorities on their pending asylum procedures. About 14,000 asylum seekers have been awaiting judgement on their case for a period exceeding three years and several hundreds of them have been waiting for a decision for more than 10 years. This is the case despite the fact that, due to a very restrictive immigration policy pursued by the previous Austrian governments in recent years, the number of asylum seekers coming to Austria has significantly decreased. In 2006, some 13,350 people filed an application with the Austrian authorities to be granted asylum for the first time.

In Austria, thousands of older people privately engage the services of illegal foreign workers for geriatric nursing purposes in the home. This is because they cannot afford to pay licensed professionals to provide such services. Currently, experts estimate that around 40,000 illegally operating foreign nursing staff offer their services to persons needing such care in the home. To remove the threat of immediate prosecution of the parties involved and thereby secure the existing care relationships, in the autumn of 2006, the then opposition Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ [1]) and the conservative Austrian People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP [2]) agreed to temporarily legalise most of these illicit employment relationships (*AT0701019I* [3]). This interim amnesty is a step towards the objective of completely reorganising the labour market in the field of private care services. [1] http://www.spoe.at/ [2] http://www.oevp.at/ [3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/temporary-work-permits-issued-to-illegal-foreign-care-workers

On 1 August 2007, the Austrian parliament (Nationalrat [1]) endorsed an amendment to the Working Time Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, AZG) with support only from members of the coalition government parties. The amendment, which was based on a draft bill jointly presented by the social partners on 3 May 2007, provides for greater working time flexibility [2]. The new legislation also adopted almost all of the proposals presented in the working time chapter of the government programme (Regierungsprogramm 2007–2010 (in German, 415Kb PDF) [3]) of the coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ [4]) and the conservative Austrian People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP [5]) established in January 2007 (*AT0702029I* [6]). The more flexible working time regime aims to better accommodate both the various sector-related business demands and employee needs in terms of work-life balance [7]. [1] http://www.parlament.gv.at/portal/page?_pageid=888,1&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/flexibility [3] http://www.austria.gv.at/DocView.axd?CobId=19542 [4] http://www.spoe.at/ [5] http://www.oevp.at/ [6] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/government-seeks-more-working-time-flexibility [7] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/worklife-balance-0

On 2 July 2007, the President of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB [1]), Rudolf Hundstorfer, and the President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKÖ [2]), Christoph Leitl, signed an agreement ‘in principle’, which aims to introduce a national minimum monthly gross pay rate of €1,000. The signatory parties agreed to establish the new minimum wage across all sectors of the national economy through sectoral collective agreements, at the latest by 1 January 2009. Sectors affected by the agreement will include textiles and leather, food manufacturing and several branches of the private services sector, such as hairdressers, pedicurists, cosmeticians and taxi drivers. It is estimated that between 20,000 and 30,000 employees will be affected by the agreement. [1] http://www.oegb.at/ [2] http://portal.wko.at/

On 22 May 2007, the parties to collective bargaining signed an agreement on behalf of about 3,500 ground staff of the Austrian Airlines group (AUA [1]), the country’s national air carrier. This agreement marks the temporary end of a serious conflict lasting several months, when negotiations over a follow-up collective agreement for commercial and technical staff ended in deadlock after the previous agreement had elapsed on 31 October 2006. [1] http://www.aua.com/at/deu

Like several other former public authorities (*AT0307203F* [1], *AT0203202F* [2]), Austrian universities changed from the status of a public authority to the status of a corporation with legal capacity in 2002 – a system known as /Ausgliederung/. Restructuring of the universities has thus led to semi-private, ‘hybrid’ employment relations, since the civil servants who were appointed before restructuring have maintained their public law employment status, whereas employees who have been employed since 1 January 2004 are recruited under a private law employment contract. The University Act 2002 (/Universitätsgesetz/) on university restructuring introduced the private sector model of industrial relations, by equipping the newly-established National University Federation (Dachverband der österreichischen Universitäten [3]) as the umbrella employer organisation with the right to bargain. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/restructuring-of-public-services-challenges-union-demarcation-lines [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/undefined/industrial-relations-in-posts-and-telecommunications-examined [3] http://www.reko.ac.at/dachverband/

On 6 and 7 December 2006, the newly-established vida [1] trade unions [2] held its founding congress in Vienna in the presence of some 774 delegates of the three predecessor unions. At this event, the union was officially set up as a result of the merger of the former Union of Railway Employees (Gewerkschaft der Eisenbahner, GdE), the blue-collar Commerce and Transport Union (Gewerkschaft Handel, Transport, Verkehr, HTV) and the blue-collar Hotels, Catering and Personal Services Union (Gewerkschaft Hotel, Gastgewerbe, Persönlicher Dienst, HGPD). [1] http://www.vida.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=S03/Page/S03_Index&n=S03_0 [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/trade-unions

In mid April 2007, the respective Presidents of Austria’s two major social partner organisations, Christoph Leitl of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKÖ [1]) and Rudolf Hundstorfer of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB [2]), agreed on measures aimed at preventing social security fraud in companies. According to the social partner proposal, employers should in future be obliged to register their employees with the relevant social insurance institutions before the commencement of work or on the day of commencement at the latest. [1] http://portal.wko.at/wk/startseite.wk [2] http://www.oegb.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=OEGBZ/Page/OEGBZ_Index&n=OEGBZ_0

From 22 to 24 January 2007, the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB [1]) held its sixteenth general congress (/Bundeskongress/), the ÖGB’s highest governing body, at the Austria Centre Vienna (ACV [2]). At its congress, the trade union federation adopted the first step of an internal restructuring process; this was deemed necessary in the wake of the conflict related to the financial scandal concerning the Bank for Employment and Commerce (Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft AG, BAWAG [3]) and the former ÖGB leadership’s involvement in this controversy (*AT0604019I* [4]). The applications and proposals for a comprehensive reform of the trade union submitted at the congress were largely based on the results of ballots and regional conferences organised throughout the country during the autumn of 2006 (*AT0611029I* [5]). [1] http://www.oegb.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=OEGBZ/Page/OEGBZ_Index&n=OEGBZ_0 [2] http://www.acv.at/evo/web/acv/2268_DE [3] http://www.bawag.com/bawag/home/nav.html [4] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/union-president-forced-to-resign-over-bank-scandal [5] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/disagreement-over-future-role-of-trade-union-federation