Older unemployed people to be entitled to a job

In late 1997, the Austrian Parliament was due to approve legislative proposals entitling some unemployed people aged over 55 (women) or over 60 (men) to at least 12 months of employment in a public employment project. The Public Employment Service will be required to create the necessary infrastructure by the beginning of 2000.

In Austria, there is a legal entitlement to early retirement when a person: has drawn unemployment benefits for at least 12 of the last 15 months; is aged over 55 years (women) or over 60 (men); and has accumulated at least 180 months (15 years) of contributions to the pension insurance scheme. At least 120 of the 180 months of contributions have to derive from actual employment, while the remainder may derive from periods of child-rearing of up to 48 months per child. The pension entitlement lapses if new employment is entered into.

The Government has proposed, and Parliament is about to approve, changes to the Public Employment Service Act (Arbeitsmarktservicegesetz, AMSG). These will entitle persons with the above entitlement to early retirement for whom the Public Employment Service (Arbeitsmarktservice, AMS) has been unable to achieve the desired results, to employment of at least 12 months in "adequate" employment projects.

The AMS has to create the conditions facilitating such employment by the beginning of 2000. The task will mainly be to find employers, be they private or public, which feel that they can usefully employ older long-term unemployed people. The principal target, it appears at present, will be tasks that would not be performed were they to be financed strictly commercially. A spokesperson for the AMS gave the example of unemployed, pensionable programmers being provided to local administrations to computerise their archives. It may prove harder to find employment for less-qualified people. Participation in the scheme by unemployed people will be voluntary.

Employers participating in the scheme will be paid a so called "special integration subsidy" (Besondere Eingliederungsbeihilfe, or Besebfor short). It consists of the benefit entitlement of the new employee plus 41% of the employer's social security cost. This is reckoned to amount to ATS 100,000 to ATS 120,000 per year per average male employee, and somewhat less in the case of women.