According to Austrian labour law, workers are divided into two categories, namely white-collar and blue-collar workers. However, this legal differentiation is no longer deemed appropriate. A flu outbreak in late 2009 has again fuelled the debate on the relevance of this distinction in terms of labour law, particularly in situations where time off is enforced by care obligations.
In November 2009, the Austrian Workers’ Federation (Österreichischer ArbeitnehmerInnen- und Arbeiterbund, ÖAAB) called for a complete harmonisation of Austria’s labour law regulations for blue-collar and white-collar workers. ÖAAB, as an interest grouping for employees, forms part of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP). ÖAAB’s Chair, Beatrix Karl, criticised that inequalities between the two occupational categories of workers have partially been abolished in recent years with regard to social security law only, while substantial differences remain in relation to labour law to the detriment of blue-collar workers. Ms Karl has referred to this situation as unfair and anachronistic.
Employee categories in Austria
Austrian labour law divides workers into two occupational categories, that is, white-collar workers and blue-collar or manual workers. According to the legal definition in the White-Collar Workers Act (Angestelltengesetz, AngG), a white-collar worker is an individual who is required under a contract of employment to perform predominantly non-manual, commercial, technical, administrative non-technical or office work. The act also sets out occupational groups of workers. In contrast, there is no legal definition of the concept of a manual worker as distinct from that of a white-collar worker. Therefore, all of the employees who are not white-collar workers within the definition of the law are classified as manual workers.
However, technological progress is continuously raising the skills level required for the types of work done by manual workers. It is thus no longer possible to base the categorisation of manual workers merely on the criterion of work involving physical effort. Today, this category also includes qualified skilled workers (FacharbeiterInnen), who are highly trained and carry out responsibilities corresponding to their qualifications. For this reason, the relevance of a legal distinction between manual and white-collar workers, with separate employment legislation for the two occupational categories, is increasingly called into question by many stakeholders.
Unequal labour law provisions
Generally, Austrian blue-collar or manual workers are worse off in many labour law aspects, compared with white-collar workers. First, in the case of illness of an employee, the entitlement to sick pay paid by the employer is regulated differently for white-collar and blue-collar workers, in that continued payment of remuneration (Entgeltfortzahlung) is subject to tighter temporal restrictions for the latter compared with the former. Secondly, dismissal protection is also regulated differently for the two categories of workers. On the one hand, the required period of notice is significantly longer (up to five months) for white-collar workers, compared with that ofblue-collar workers for whom a negotiable notice period of 14 days is provided, which is usually shortened or extended by collective agreement. On the other hand, in contrast to white-collar workers, blue-collar workers lose all claims concerning the payment of their share of bonuses in case of dismissal. Moreover, the list of reasons justifying summary dismissal by the employer is far more exhaustive in the case of blue-collar workers, dating from the 19th century, compared with that of white-collar workers. Given such anachronism, experts and organised labour have repeatedly proposed the idea of replacing the existing separate labour legislation regulating the employment of blue-collar and white-collar workers with a uniform legislation for both categories of workers.
Significance of flu outbreak
The debate on replacing the existing separate labour legislation for the two occupational categories with a uniform one has been refuelled by ÖAAB since a flu outbreak affected a noticeable number of the Austrian population in November 2009. During the first wave of the ‘swine flu’ epidemic, several schools closed their doors, with the result that many parents had to look after their children staying at home. In this situation, white-collar workers may take some time off, with the continued payment of remuneration, while blue-collar workers are only paid for their time off if the applicable collective agreement contains such provisions. ÖAAB has perceived this form of unequal treatment of white-collar and blue-collar workers as unfair and inappropriate.
Social partner responses
The recent debate on establishing uniform labour law regulations for all workers initiated by the conservative ÖAAB has been firmly approved by organised labour, in particular the trade unions. In this context, however, the trade unions have renewed their demand to establish a new and modern labour law and to redefine the concept of employment such that it also includes ‘economically dependent self-employed workers’ (AT0309201N).
The employers’ side, on the other hand, remains sceptical and fears that a uniform labour law applying to all categories of workers would increase the already high labour costs in Austria even further. Moreover, they argue that the existing separation of works council bodies for blue-collar and white-collar workers would then be obsolete and should thus be abolished.
Georg Adam, Department of Industrial Sociology, University of Vienna