Adam, Georg

On 1 January 2006, the 2005 Household Service Cheque Act (Dienstleistungsscheckgesetz, DLSG) came into effect, which enables people using household services to pay for them with a special cheque (including injuries insurance contributions) instead of in cash. In practice, this means that people using such services (ie the 'quasi-employers') have to buy 'household service cheques' prior to engaging a household worker. By paying for the service with the cheque, the (quasi-)employer has fulfilled all social insurance obligations on behalf of the worker who - for his or her part - has to submit all the cheques received for the work at the end of the subsequent month to the Insurance Association for Railway and Mining Workers (Versicherungsanstalt für Eisenbahnen und Bergbau, VAEB). The VAEB is in charge of administering the new scheme, which includes the conversion of the submitted cheques into cash to the benefit of the household workers. The cheques are available for sale at post offices (at a fixed value of EUR 5 or EUR 10), at tobacconists’ shops and directly at the offices of the VAEB (in these cases at any value demanded by the employer). For the employer, the purchasing price of the cheque includes 1.4% injuries insurance contributions and small additional administration fees. When handing over the cheque to the household worker, only the names and the social insurance identification numbers of both parties concerned have to be filled in, as well as the working day the cheque refers to.

According to figures released by the General Accidents Insurance Corporation (Allgemeine Unfallversicherungsanstalt, AUVA [1]), the number of workplace accidents in Austria remained almost unchanged during the period 2004-2005, with 0.1% up to a total of 120,271 cases. Notably, these numbers refer to a broad concept of work accident, also including the so-called petty accidents, which do not result in any absence of work, and accidents while commuting (to or from work), which account for some 10-12,000 cases per year. Moreover, these figures also include accidents involving self-employed people (AT9707126N [2]), of which there are in between 3,000 and 3,500 each year. A more detailed view, however, shows that the number of fatal accidents decreased considerably in the 2004-2005 period, 7.2% down to 219 in total. Despite this positive development, AUVA’s general director, Helmut Pichler, cannot identify any long-term trend, since the 2005 change in the number of fatal accidents lies, he stated, within the statistical range of variations. In order to have the numbers of workplace accidents effectively dropped for a lasting period, AUVA plans to join a National Action Plan (NAP) for Accident Prevention drawn up and implemented in 2004 by the Federal Ministry for Health Affairs and Women. This NAP includes - apart from working life - all spheres of life; its aim is to prevent 2,500 fatal accidents by 2010. [1] http://www.auva.at/ [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/work-accidents-down-in-1996

On 12 January 2006, the coalition government of the conservative People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP) and the populist Alliance for the Future of Austria (Bündnis Zukunft Österreich, BZÖ) agreed on the partial privatisation of the Austrian Post Company (Österreichische Post AG). The cabinet empowered the state public holding company (Österreichische Industrieholding AG, ÖIAG) to sell off (ie privatise) up to 49% of its state shares in Österreichische Post - which is currently entirely state-owned - on the stock exchange in 2006. The ÖIAG was initially established by law as a holding concern to administer and manage the companies completely or partially owned by the state. However, in the mid-1990s, this institution changed from an operating concern holding a set of shares in state-owned companies to an executive privatisation agency, whose main role is to carry out the privatisation of all these firms on behalf of the government (AT0312204F [1]). [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/steel-producers-fully-privatised

On 7 December 2005, the Supreme Court of Justice (Oberster Gerichtshof, OGH) formally terminated a pending conflict over the service regulations of Austria’s largest bank institute, the Bank Austria-Creditanstalt (BA-CA), by pronouncing its decision in favour of the employer’s side.

At the beginning of December 2005, state secretary Alfred Finz of the conservative People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP) announced the government’s willingness to abolish the traditional public employment relationship of career public servants (Beamte). According to Mr Finz, the government plans to present a draft bill for a Federal Public Employees Act (Bundesmitarbeitergesetz) early in 2006. This draft will provide for only a single, uniform type of employment relationship between public employees and their employer. Thus, the current two-tier system in the civil service, which is based on a differentiation between career public servants and 'contract public employees' (Vertragsbedienstete) would be abolished (see below).

On 24 November 2005, the general assembly of the Chamber of the Economy (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKÖ) adopted an agreement on further reform steps in respect of the Chamber which had been reached by the body’s leadership a few days before. Interestingly, all competing factions (which are represented within the WKÖ bodies) affiliated to one of the political parties in parliament - except for the faction affiliated to the Green Party (Die Grünen, GRÜNE) - voted in favour of the draft reform programme.

At the beginning of November 2005, the conservative-populist coalition government and the management of the state-owned Austrian Federal Railways (Österreichische Bundesbahnen, ÖBB) launched a debate over possible changes to the railworkers’ current statutory 'service regulations'. At present, more than 80% of ÖBB employees are career public servants (Beamte) enjoying permanent tenure that carries absolute protection against dismissal. The Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Infrastructure (including transport affairs), Hubert Gorbach, announced the government’s willingness to introduce a Federal Railways Service Regulations Act (ÖBB-Dienstrechtsgesetz) in order to relax the railworkers’ current protection against dismissal. Furthermore, the government aims to restrict by law the current special ÖBB early retirement scheme, which is laid down in the Federal Railways Pensions Act (Bundesbahnpensionsgesetz, BB-PG). This enables the company to pension off employees early for solely business reasons, without any requirement for a medical certificate (AT0308202F [1]). According to the minister, the relevant draft legislation should be pushed through parliament within the next months. The background is the perceived poor financial performance of the ÖBB. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/controversy-over-planned-reduction-in-railway-workforce

A study carried out by the Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer, AK [1]) in September 2005 underlines the continuing predominance of men within the governing bodies of Austria’s enterprises. Accordingly, 45 out of 79 companies listed on the Viennese stock exchange have management and supervisory boards composed exclusively of men. Only 25 out of 540 mandates for the supervisory boards are held by women (ie 4.6%), and only 7 out of 230 management board members are females (ie 3%). Women’s top-level representation in Austria’s businesses thus records an even worse situation compared with the anyhow extremely low numbers at European Union (EU) level (recording a women’s share of 7.3% in supervisory boards). [1] http://wien.arbeiterkammer.at/

In February 2005, the first-ever collective agreement for private training institutions was concluded after several years of negotiations (AT0504202N [1]). We take this as an opportunity to look at the system of industrial relations in this sector in general. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/first-collective-agreement-signed-for-private-training-institutions

On 23 September 2005, only one week after the first meeting of the bargaining parties involved, the new collective agreement for some 180,000 employees in the metalworking industry was concluded. Accordingly, both minimum and actual wages and salaries (including the apprentices’ remuneration) will increase by 3.1%, beginning on 1 November 2005. This agreement provides for the highest pay increase of recent years (see table below). Both parties, ie branch subunit representatives of the Chamber of the Economy (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKÖ) on the employers’ side and representatives of the blue-collar Metalworking and Textiles Union (Gewerkschaft Metall-Textil, GMT) and white-collar Union of Salaried Employees (Gewerkschaft der Privatangestellten, GPA) on the employees’ side, have emphasised that the bargaining process proved extraordinarily difficult. However, this contrasts with the fact that the sectoral social partners reached an agreement within a few days only. Considering the high inflation rate of 2.5% in 2005 as well as outstandingly high productivity rates of the metalworking industry in 2004 (WKÖ 2005: Leistungsbericht 2004), it soon became clear that the trade unions would not be willing to accept pay increases lower than 3%. Therefore the agreement did not come as a great surprise.