Adam, Georg
Low take-up of subsidised wage scheme
14 Bealtaine 2006
On 1 January 2006, Section 34a of the Labour Market Service Act
(/Arbeitsmarktservicegesetz/, AMSG), which was passed by parliament in the
autumn of 2005, came into force. The new regulation enables both employers
and employees to avail of subsidised wages in low-wage sectors, and aims to
boost employment, particularly in light of Austria’s steadily increasing
unemployment levels in recent years (*AT0509202N* [1]). The reasoning behind
the new legislation is that vacant posts, which cannot be filled because of
extremely low pay levels, should be made more attractive to people who are
long-term unemployed, by subsidising their wages using funds of the Labour
Market Service (Arbeitsmarktservice, AMS [2]). Such low-wage jobs are
typically part time and often entail commercial, basic office and cleaning
activities.
[1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/subsidised-wageto-combat-unemployment
[2] http://www.ams.or.at/neu/
Union merger announced
09 Bealtaine 2006
According to a joint press release on 14 March 2006, the Union of Salaried
Employees (Gewerkschaft der Privatangestellten, GPA [1]) and the Printing,
Journalism and Paper Union (Gewerkschaft Druck, Journalismus, Papier, DJP
[2]) plan to merge their organisations during 2006. The acronym of the new
trade union will be GPA-DJP. GPA, which currently has about 276,000 members,
and the much smaller DJP, with approximately 17,000 members, will jointly
cover a total of about 293,000 members. This merger will further strengthen
GPA’s position as the largest and probably most powerful affiliate of the
Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB
[3]).
[1] http://www.gpa.at/
[2] http://www.dup.or.at/
[3] http://www.oegb.at/
Controversy over effectiveness of new household service cheque
10 Márta 2006
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.
Number of work accidents remained stable in 2005
05 Feabhra 2006
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
Union opposes privatisation of postal services
24 Eanáir 2006
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
Supreme Court of Justice judges bank’s agreement hopping as lawful
10 Eanáir 2006
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.
Government plans to abolish permanent tenure for civil servants
09 Eanáir 2006
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).
Chamber of the Economy envisages further reform steps
07 Nollaig 2005
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.
Renewed dispute over railworkers’ service regulations
28 Samhain 2005
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
Women greatly under-represented in top-level business positions
06 Samhain 2005
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/