Gächter, August

Recently released income data from social security files show the income gap between men and women to have widened in 1996. The median gross income per month stood at ATS 27,131 for men and ATS 18,868 for women - the difference being 44%, compared with a gap of 43% in 1995. The overall median had risen from ATS 23,265 to ATS 23,848, an increase of 2.5%. The data are not adjusted for differences in working time, and the 25% share of part-time workers in the female workforce, as opposed to 2% among males, thus pushes the median down. Assuming there was no noticeable change in the proportions of part-timers, the widening of the reported gap does, however, indicate a real development. Among public servants, where part-time work is less likely because it is less available - and where there is a heavy male "overhang" in the relatively poorly-paid police force while there is a female overhang among the better-paid teachers - the median for women stood at ATS 30,532 as opposed to only ATS 28,295 for men.

The Government and the teachers' sections within the Union of Public Services (Gewerkschaft Öffentlicher Dienst, GÖD) have agreed a package of legal changes on retirement and working time, aimed at cutting costs and ensuring the employment of young teachers. The package was approved by the cabinet in October 1997.

The threat that employees at the Austrian Federal Railways (Österreichische Bundesbahnen, ÖBB) would have to pay unemployment insurance contributions, backdated to 1995, is about to be defused by an act of Parliament. The Union of Railway Workers (Gewerkschaft der Eisenbahner) had been threatening strikes in the event that pay deductions should commence from August 1997, as seemed likely at first.

The Austrian Government is aiming to finalise its pension reform effort (AT9707118F [1]) before the end of 1997. Essentially it consists of two components: lowering pension entitlements and widening the contributor base to the four national pension schemes. The latter is to be achieved by including the self-employed as well as part-timers earning less than the subsistence minimum, and by placing disincentives in the way of early retirement. These discincentives are designed as a trade-off between the length of the retirement and the size of the pension. For every year of retirement before the standard pension eligibility age - ie 60 for women and 65 for men - the pension is to be reduced by 2%. Expert advice was to institute a 4% reduction per year. The lowering of pension entitlements, in addition to this trade-off element, has a number of other components, chiefly the lengthening of the base period on which pensions are computed from 15 to 20 years in the case of early retirement, and a new formula for pension adjustments from the year 2000. The new formula is to be thrashed out by experts in 1998. The longer base period, according to the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB), will result in new pensions being 4% to 5% lower on average than they would be with a 15-year base period. In the civil service, no such base period currently exists, and here the Government intends gradually to introduce a 15-year base period between 1999 and 2012. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/undefined/pension-reform-plans-under-debate

The Austrian Federal Railways (Österreichische Bundesbahnen, ÖBB, ) employs about 55,000 people, and each year hires about 350 new apprentices for three-year courses. In 1997, it was originally planned to reduce the number to 250 but two recent agreements should lead to an intake of over 400. The key to the increase is innovative bargaining by the Union of Railway Workers (Gewerkschaft der Eisenbahner) and funding from the Government.

The city authorities of Vienna, together with the Union of Local Administration Employees (Gewerkschaft der Gemeindebediensteten, GGB), is planning to bring greater flexibility to the working time arrangements of its employees. Two measures are being proposed - sabbatical leave and greater opportunities for part-time work. Both sides are basically agreed these measures are needed and should take effect from the beginning of 1998, but the details will yet have to be negotiated.

Agreed on 14 April 1997 and finally signed at the end of June, a collective agreement on teleworking (Telearbeit) covering industrial enterprises in the mineral oils sector took effect from 1 May 1997. It was concluded between the Association of the Mineral Oils Industry (Fachverband der Erdölindustrie) - which forms part of the Federal Section Industry (Bundessektion Industrie) of the Austrian Chamber of Economy (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKÖ) - for employers and three trade unions: the Union of Salaried Employees (Gewerkschaft der Privatangestellten, GPA) covering trade in mineral oils as well as salaried employees in manufacturing and extraction; the Union of Chemical Workers (Gewerkschaft der Chemiearbeiter) covering waged workers in manufacturing; and the Metals Mining Energy Trade Union (Gewerkschaft Metall Bergbau Energie, GMBE) covering waged workers in extraction.

According to data recently published by the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB), there was not a single strike in 1996. In 1995 there had been one strike involving 60 workers at a tools factory in the south of the country, who clocked up 894 strike hours in the course of two days. For the total economy there were 1.05 seconds of strike activity per employee. In 1994, too, there were no strikes.

Owing to a decision issued by the Constitutional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof), published in mid-July 1997, employees of the Austrian Federal Railways (Österreichische Bundesbahnen, ÖBB) may have to pay unemployment insurance contributions, amounting to 3% of gross pay, from August 1997. Because the deduction is made before tax, the tax base shrinks and the net result for the employee is a reduction of take-home pay by roughly 2%. Average net income will be reduced by about ATS 600 per month. This compares with a pay increase of ATS 250 per month set by collective agreement from 1 July 1997 (plus a one-off payment of ATS 1,750).

The total number of work accidents declined from 164,469 in 1994 to 159,122 in 1995 and to 149,949 in 1996, according to figures recently released by the General Accident Insurance Corporation (Allgemeine Unfallversicherungsanstalt, AUVA). These numbers refer to a broad concept of "work accident" including accidents on the way to and from work, and also include accidents involving self-employed people, of which there are roughly 5,000 every year.