Adam, Georg

This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the insurance sector. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effective participation in the European sectoral social dialogue and their capacity to negotiate agreements.

This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the banking sector. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effective participation in the European sectoral social dialogue and their capacity to negotiate agreements.

Planned amendments to the minimum income scheme, the start of the annual bargaining round and the opening of GPA-djp negotiations for crowdworkers are the main topics of interest in this article. This country update reports on the latest developments in working life in Austria in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The consequences of the recent amendments to the Working Time Act and the presentation of a draft bill by the government on a far-reaching social security reform are the main topics of interest in this article. This country update reports on the latest developments in working life in Austria in the third quarter of 2018.

Amendments to the Working Time Act, a streamlining of the social insurance system and the renewal of important collective agreements are the main topics of interest in this article. This country update reports on the latest developments in working life in Austria in the second quarter of 2018.

In Austria, most kindergarten and professional childcare facilities for children up to the age of six years are run by the authorities, mainly at provincial (/Land/) or local state level. The employees of these public care institutions are all covered by clear-cut employment regulations, which are unilaterally imposed by law. However, public childcare institutions do not cover the entire childcare sector and do not meet all of the, often particular, needs for professional care. Therefore, the sector also includes a number of private kindergarten and childcare facilities operated by particular organisations, such as clerical institutions or private-law associations and establishments. The private kindergarten sector in Austria is estimated to employ between 5,000 and 6,000 teaching staff, the vast majority of whom (over 99%) are women.

On 16 November 2009, a new collective agreement covering 170,000 metalworking employees was signed between the Union of Salaried Employees, Graphical Workers and Journalists (Gewerkschaft der Privatangestellten – Druck, Journalismus, Papier, GPA-DJP [1]), the then Metalworking, Textiles and Food-Processing Union (Gewerkschaft Metall, Textil, Nahrung, GMTN), now Pro-ge [2], and various branches of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKO [3]). [1] http://www.gpa-djp.at/ [2] http://www.proge.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=P01/Page/P01_Index&n=P01_0 [3] http://portal.wko.at/wk/startseite.wk

On 30 November 2009, the Chamber of Labour of the province of Upper Austria (Arbeiterkammer Oberösterreich, AK OÖ [1]) and the Austrian Institute for Empirical Social Studies (Institut für Empirische Sozialforschung, IFES [2]) presented the results of the Austrian Employee Health Monitor (/Arbeitsgesundheitsmonitor/). The AK OÖ and IFES in close cooperation with a private doctors’ association and the Medical University of Graz (Medizinische Universität Graz [3]) developed the health monitor. [1] http://www.arbeiterkammer.com/beratung.htm [2] http://www.ifes.at/ [3] http://www.meduni-graz.at/

Trade unions in Austria have issued claims that, since the beginning of the current global economic downturn, companies have increasingly made use of so-called suspension arrangements (/Aussetzverträge/). Such arrangements provide for the temporary suspension of employment of individual employees – in such cases, the employer and the employee agree to terminate the employment relationship [1] and to re-establish it after a certain period of time. In formal terms, these arrangements can only be concluded on a voluntary basis. However, according to the Union of Salaried Employees, Graphical Workers and Journalists (Gewerkschaft der Privatangestellten – Druck, Journalismus, Papier, GPA-DJP [2]), employers regularly put pressure on employees to agree to contracts temporarily suspending employment. It is argued that companies may prefer suspension arrangements over other instruments for coping with the consequences of the economic crisis, such as short-time working arrangements. Temporary suspension arrangements tend to be more favourable for the companies both legally and in terms of costs. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/employment-relationship [2] http://www.gpa-djp.at/

In the spring of 2008, the then Federal Minister of Social Affairs and Consumer Protection, Erwin Buchinger, agreed with representatives of all nine Austrian provinces (/Länder/) to introduce a ‘needs-oriented basic cover’ scheme by the summer of 2009. The aim was to replace the different social assistance schemes of each of the nine provinces by a uniform ‘basic cover’ scheme in order to set national minimum standards of assistance and thus prevent destitution among the country’s population. At that time, the proposal stipulated that impoverished people who are willing to work would receive a minimum gross income of €747 a month, which should be payable 14 times a year and revaluated annually (*AT0804019I* [1]). However, general elections held in September 2008 (which eventually led to a reinstatement of a social-democratic-conservative coalition government), the looming global economic and financial crisis as well as the permanent threat of one province, namely Carinthia, to withdraw from the planned nationwide scheme and to maintain its regional assistance scheme have together almost derailed the entire ‘basic cover’ project. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/government-to-introduce-basic-social-security-cover-in-2009