Krenn, Manfred

​Working time is one of the most controversial issues in Austrian labour relations. Employers want more flexibility while workers want fewer working hours. A new study of employees in the electrics and electronic industry identifies what types of employees would prefer to reduce their working hours and provides the first feedback on the use of the 'free time option’, which enables employees to choose a wage increase or equivalent free time.

An employers' group proposal for radical cuts in the unemployment benefit system, following the German Hartz IV model, triggers conflict between the social partners. One of Austria's main employers' organisations has proposed harmonising u...

A debate on opt-out-clauses could be seen as a sign of a rougher political climate between the social partners, implying changes to the basics of the traditional social partnership model in Austria.

After decades of vacillation regarding working time reduction, the Austrian unions have put a general statutory reduction of working hours plus a sixth holiday week for all workers on the policy agenda. In the second quarter of 2015, union...

Although Austria amended its health and safety laws in 2013 to try to combat the increasing number of psychosocial health risks at work, a survey by the Austrian Chamber of Labour has shown that only a minority of Austrian employers are meeting compulsory obligations to identify, reduce or eliminate such risks.

In 2013, a new, innovative element was introduced in collective bargaining in Austria – the so-called free time option. Two sectoral-level collective agreements concluded in 2013, in the electronics and mining and steel sectors, included for the first time the option of converting pay rises into extra time off work.

A study has looked at the question of ethic, age and gender discrimination in the recruiting processes of the Austrian labour market.

A study, Green jobs: Working conditions and employment potential (in German, 795KB PDF) [1], was commissioned by the Austrian Chamber of Labour and conducted by the Institute for Advanced Studies [2] (IHS) in 2012. [1] http://media.arbeiterkammer.at/wien/IzUmweltpolitik_Ausgabe_186.pdf [2] http://www.ihs.ac.at/vienna/

Well-being, health and safety at work and work-related health problems have been attracting growing public attention in Austria in recent years. An indicator for this rise in interest is the implementation of the Austrian Occupational Health Monitor by the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labour. The survey tries to analyse the links between working conditions and the health status of employees on the basis of very rich data. Some of the most interesting results are presented in this report.

A longitudinal study, The structure and dynamics of unemployment, atypical employment and low-wage jobs’ (in German, 2.49 KB PDF) [1], was carried out by the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO [2]). It is based on the statistical analysis of social security data (provided by the Main Association of Austrian Social Security Institutions [3]) linked with data from the Public Employment Service (AMS) [4]. [1] http://www.wifo.ac.at/jart/prj3/wifo/resources/person_dokument/person_dokument.jart?publikationsid=46669&mime_type=application/pdf%20 [2] http://www.wifo.ac.at/ [3] http://www.hauptverband.at/portal27/portal/hvbportal/channel_content/cmsWindow?action=2&p_menuid=58433&p_tabid=6 [4] http://www.ams.at/english.html