Chamber of the Economy takes further reform steps

In late April 2001, a special assembly of the Chamber of the Economy, Austria's main employers' organisation, approved a programme of measures to implement an internal reform plan drawn up in 2000. The main aim is to reduce membership dues by 30%.

In August 2000, the new political leadership of the Chamber of the Economy (Wirtschaftskammer Österreichs, WKÖ) presented an initiative for substantial reform of the Chamber - Austria's main employers' organisation, with membership compulsory for companies (AT0009230F). The key goal of the initiative has been to reduce membership dues by about 30%. Such significant reductions presuppose sustainable efforts to economise on resources, which in turn require thoroughgoing restructuring. After continued internal debates on the concrete means to implement this ambitious programme, the WKÖ's leadership reached an agreement which was formally ratified by a special assembly on 27 April 2001.

The main elements of the restructuring programme are as follows:

• activities and tasks will be more efficiently distributed among the Chamber's various distinct subunits, in particular between the Chamber at national (federal) level and the Chambers in each of the federal states (Länder). Under the present structure, there is a degree of redundancy and duplication in many activities, in that several subunits participate in one and the same activity. The reform programme focuses on a complementary division of labour among the subunits. For instance, all service activities will fall within the remit of the Länder Chambers in the future, whereas at present services are provided also by the federal chamber within the framework of the federal Business Promotion Institute (Wirtschaftsförderungsinstitut, WIFI). As a consequence, the tasks of the federal WIFI will be reduced to coordination activities, while services as such will be provided by its Länder counterparts. As regards interest representation, the new complementary division of labour means that the federal Chamber will concentrate on activities targeting the federal Austrian state and the EU;

• attempts to achieve a more efficient division of labour also affect the WKÖ administrative apparatus, with the number of departments to be reduced;

• 10 of the Chamber's foreign trade offices will be closed;

• at present, many services are offered free of charge. The reform seeks to commercialise the Chamber's service activities, in that members will have to pay for them;

• the Chamber's current staff of about 5,200 employees will be reduced by 18% (approximately 950 jobs). According to the reform plan, this goal should mainly be implemented in a "soft" way, by not filling the jobs of employees who leave or reach retirement age; and

• the area where the measures agreed deviate most from the initial reform concept is the Chamber's internal differentiation by sectors and branches. Originally, the goal was to reduce the degree of differentiation by building fewer and more encompassing units. However, the number of the sectoral umbrella organisations (formerly called Sektionen) will in fact be extended from six Sektionen to seven so-called Sparten, now including an additional organisation for the "new economy". Furthermore, the structure of the narrower lower-level subunits of the Sektionen will be maintained. As a rule, these subunits act as the employer representatives in collective bargaining. Therefore, maintaining their structure means that the WKÖ reform will scarcely affect the system of bargaining units in industrial relations.

Overall, the reform measures are estimated to save EUR 153 million, which will enable the Chamber to reduce its membership dues by 29.4% on average.

The decisions on the above measures are important steps towards a successful reform of WKÖ, for two main reasons. First, the measures meet the key goal of cutting membership dues by about 30%. Second, the decision was taken unanimously, with the effect that implementation of the measures will enjoy support from all groups within the Chamber. The fact that a very high degree of internal sectoral differentiation has been maintained will thus not challenge the reform. Nevertheless, this continuing differentiation is notable since it indicates that the WKÖ's members do not like more encompassing, amalgamated units of interest representation. As far as collective bargaining is concerned, this is manifested in the fact that employers tend to call for narrowing the sectoral scope of collective agreements, something which usually faces trade union resistance.