Adam, Georg
Agreement reached in dispute about overtime for air traffic controllers
22 oktober 2006
During July 2006, a significant shortage of air traffic controllers, employed
by Austro Control [1], at Vienna International Airport caused frequent delays
of flight departures. The airline most affected was Austrian (AUA [2]) (the
former Austrian Airlines national air carrier, *AT0408203F* [3]). On several
occasions, one out of three of the day’s scheduled flights was considerably
delayed due to a lack of departure ‘slots’ allowed by Austro Control for
security reasons. According to Austrian’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO),
Alfred Ötsch, the financial costs to the company as a result of these
inconveniences amounted to €5.8 million.
[1] http://www.austrocontrol.at/en/home/index.html
[2] http://www.aua.com/at/eng
[3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/unofficial-strike-by-flight-crew-hits-austrian
Union crisis puts social partnership at risk
13 september 2006
In the spring of 2006, the media and the Austrian Trade Union Federation
(Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB [1]) uncovered information about
underhand derivatives trading carried out by the federation’s own bank, the
Bank for Employment and Commerce (Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft und
Österreichische Postsparkasse AG, BAWAG PSK [2]). It soon emerged that
BAWAG’s derivatives trading with Refco, an insolvent futures broker in the
United States (US), and other speculative financial transactions in the
Caribbean had resulted in losses of €1.3 million from 1995 to 2000.
Consequently, the ÖGB President, Fritz Verzetnitsch, and the ÖGB Chief
Secretary for Financial Affairs, Günter Weninger, were forced to resign
(*AT0604019I* [3]). Most union officials criticised both the ÖGB president
and chief secretary for their decision to use several business branches of
the ÖGB, including the strike fund, as collateral, without informing other
members of ÖGB’s supervisory board. In so doing, unions claim they had
jeopardised ÖGB’s capacity to act. Both men had justified their actions as
being necessary in the bid to protect the bank.
[1] http://www.oegb.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=OEGBZ/Page/OEGBZ_Index&n=OEGBZ_0
[2] http://www.bawagpsk.com/bawagpsk/home/nav.html
[3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/union-president-forced-to-resign-over-bank-scandal
Shift in traditional wage bargaining formula
24 juli 2006
Subsequent to the launch of an initiative in May 2006 by the industry branch
of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKÖ
[1]), the President of WKÖ, Christoph Leitl, the Federation of Austrian
Industry (Industriellenvereinigung, IV [2]) and some individual business
representatives have questioned Austria’s traditional wage bargaining
formula. Negotiations on pay increases have, for many years, been conducted
on the basis of the so-called ‘Benya formula’ (named after Anton Benya, a
former president of the Austrian Trade Union Federation, Österreichischer
Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB [3]), according to which wages are calculated on the
basis of the national inflation rate and productivity.
[1] http://www.wko.at
[2] http://www.voei.at/
[3] http://www.oegb.at/
Scandal over illegal employment of posted workers
26 juni 2006
During early spring 2006, the Austrian Trade Union Federation
(Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB [1]) and the media made
allegations about new practices of illegally employing workers mostly from
outside the European Union (EU). The ÖGB and some member unions have accused
several companies of forcing third-country nationals [2] to perform ‘modern
forms of slave labour’. With respect to the case of a certain construction
and demolition company in Upper Austria – which has widely been commented
on as only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ – representatives of the Federal
Ministry of Economy and Labour Affairs (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und
Arbeit, BMWA [3]) confirmed that existing pay and working conditions had been
seriously violated.
[1] http://www.oegb.at
[2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/third-country-nationals
[3] http://www.bmwa.gv.at/EN/default.htm
Union president forced to resign over bank scandal
14 maj 2006
In autumn 2005, the Bank for Employment and Commerce (Bank für Arbeit und
Wirtschaft AG, BAWAG [1]) – Austria’s fourth largest bank, owned by the
Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB
[2]) – admitted that it had been involved in obscure derivatives trading
with Refco, an insolvent US futures broker. This resulted in major losses of
several hundred million euro. As a result, the chief executive officer of
BAWAG was forced to resign. When his successor, Ewald Nowotny, took office in
January 2006, he immediately promised to cease all ‘exotic trading’ and
to clear up all businesses causing major financial problems for the bank. In
late March 2006, internal investigations within the bank revealed that
additional losses of one billion euro had also been covered up. These
resulted from derivatives trading in the Caribbean from 1995 to 2000.
[1] http://www.bawag.com/
[2] http://www.oegb.at/
Low take-up of subsidised wage scheme
14 maj 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 maj 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 mars 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 februari 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 januari 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