Adam, Georg

Youth, the role of young people in Europe and the importance of youth employment and qualification are high on the European agenda and at national level.

The new coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ [1]) and the conservative People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP [2]), which took office on 11 January 2007, has announced better protection measures against social risks for self-employed people, in particular so-called ‘economically dependent worker [3] s’. In their joint programme for the legislative period 2007–2010, the two parties committed themselves to enacting legislation extending unemployment insurance coverage, as well as sickness and maternity benefits, to self-employed persons. In doing so, the government has adopted part of a comprehensive package of social partner proposals (Wachstum und Vollbeschäftigung (in Austrian, 304Kb PDF) [4]), drawn up by Austria’s four major social partner organisations in December 2006. [1] http://www.spoe.at/ [2] http://www.oevp.at/index.aspx?pageid=737 [3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/economically-dependent-worker [4] http://www.arbeiterkammer.at/pictures/d48/Sozialpartner_Vorschlaege_Letztversion.pdf

In autumn 2006, the organisation of women entrepreneurs, Women in Business (Frau in der Wirtschaft [1]), in the Austrian Federal Chamber for the Economy (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKO [2]) launched an initiative to change the tax system in Austria for self-employed parents of young children. The group argues that many self-employed women (and to some extent men) need private childminding services rather than childcare [3] places offered by mostly public providers. [1] http://portal.wko.at/wk/startseite_dst.wk?angid=1&DstID=281 [2] http://portal.wko.at/wk/startseite.wk [3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/childcare

In 2001, the current childcare benefit scheme (/Kinderbetreuungsgeld/) was introduced by the previous conservative-populist coalition government in order to offer parents of young children aged up to three years greater freedom of choice in relation to childcare options. The scheme grants payments to all parents with childcare obligations, regardless of their employment situation, and this particularly favours young parents with no record of income. This is because the childcare benefit scheme – in contrast to the previous system of parental leave allowance (/Karenzgeld/) – is not a social insurance benefit and is thus not related to an employment relationship. At present, the scheme provides payments of about €14.50 a day and for a period of up to 30 months, or up to 36 months if both parents alternately assume childcare obligations. Moreover, in order to promote the labour market participation of women with young children and thus to facilitate a better work–life balance, the scheme allows beneficiaries to earn an additional income of up to a maximum of €14,600 annually (*AT0304201N* [1]). [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/controversy-over-childcare-benefit

On 23 October 2006, the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (Österreichisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, WIFO [1]) presented a ‘white paper’ on long-term national employment strategies. The paper entitled ‘Towards higher employment via economic growth based on innovation and qualification’ (366Kb PDF) [2] had been commissioned by four major Austrian social partners [3] and sponsored by the Austrian National Bank (Österreichische Nationalbank, ÖNB [4]) and other public and private institutions. During 2005–2006, several dozens of WIFO experts drafted this strategy paper, which is based on 22 partial studies on growth, the labour market and economic policy. [1] http://www.wifo.ac.at [2] http://publikationen.wifo.ac.at/pls/wifosite/wifosite.wifo_search.frameset?p_filename=PRESSENOTIZEN/PRIVATE31852/P_2006_10_23_4$.PDF [3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/social-partners [4] http://www.oenb.at

From 1 to 3 November 2006, the new International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC [1]) held its founding congress in Vienna in the presence of some 1,700 delegates from more than 150 countries. At the opening session on 1 November, ITUC was officially formed after its predecessor organisations, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU [2]) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL [3]), had officially been dissolved the previous day. ITUC thus comprises the affiliated organisations of the former ICFTU and WCL together with eight other national trade union organisations which have for the first time become affiliated to a global body. The new umbrella organisation, however, does not include the 145 member unions, representing some 42 million workers worldwide, of the communist-oriented World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU [4]), which did not join the new confederation for political reasons. [1] http://www.ituc-csi.org/ [2] http://www.icftu.org/default.asp?Language=EN [3] http://www.cmt-wcl.org/ [4] http://www.wftucentral.org/

Austria’s general elections, held on 1 October 2006, resulted in the conservative People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP [1]) conceding defeat, losing its position as the largest parliamentary party by a shortfall of eight percentage points. In its place, the opposition Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ [2]) regained its position as the largest party, although it also slightly decreased its share of the vote by 1.2 percentage points to 35.3%. Following the party’s victory at the polls, the Chair of SPÖ, Alfred Gusenbauer, was immediately commissioned by the country’s President, Heinz Fischer, to put together a new and stable coalition government. Subsequently, Mr Gusenbauer initiated negotiations with the ÖVP leadership in an attempt to set up a so-called ‘grand coalition’. However, the talks have proved difficult and have not yet been concluded. [1] http://www.oevp.at/ [2] http://www.spoe.at/

During the night from 2 to 3 November 2006 – when the social partners in the metalworking industry met for the fourth bargaining round – the Union of Salaried Employees, Printing, Journalism and Paper (Gewerkschaft der Privatangestellten, Druck, Journalismus, Papier, GPA-DJP [1]) and the Metalworking, Textiles and Food-Processing Union (Gewerkschaft Metall, Textil, Nahrung, GMTN [2]) on the employees’ side and the various branch subunits of the Chamber of the Economy (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKO [3]) on the employers’ side signed a new collective agreement covering about 180,000 metalworking employees. [1] http://www.gpa-djp.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GPA/Page/Index&n=GPA_0 [2] http://www.gmtn.at/ [3] http://portal.wko.at/wk/startseite.wk

In the wake of the financial scandal concerning the BAWAG bank, owned by the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB [1]), which had been uncovered in the spring of 2006, the country’s trade union movement has come under considerable pressure. As a result, the former ÖGB leaders were forced to resign (*AT0604019I* [2]). Moreover, to compensate for the bank’s temporary security fund of €900 million guaranteed by the Austrian federal state in order to avert the bank’s and thus ÖGB’s impending insolvency, ÖGB has been forced by law to sell all of its BAWAG shares by the end of 2006. The future lack of dividend payments from the bank to the union means that membership dues will constitute the only source of revenue. Therefore, ÖGB is currently reviewing strict cost-cutting measures and a wide reform of its organisation (*AT0605029I* [3]) in order to stop the present wave of member resignations and to maintain its political power. [1] http://www.oegb.at/ [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/union-president-forced-to-resign-over-bank-scandal [3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/union-crisis-puts-social-partnership-at-risk

According to the most recent figures provided by Statistics Austria (Statistik Austria [1]) for the second half of 2004, only six out of 10 female employees in Austria were employed on a full-time basis. The microcensus labour force survey carried out in 2005 by Statistics Austria reveals that, in 2004, some 689,900 employees – representing 21.1% of the country’s employees – were part-time workers working a maximum of 35 hours a week. Statistics indicate that 39.9% of female employees work part time, compared with only 5% of male employees. [1] http://www.stat.at/