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The social partners should develop rules for the head office in the course of September. No precise dates or points for discussion have yet been set. However, in the lead-up to the talks, the debate is less about rest regulations, work time records and reviews, or insurance law issues at the head office. The representatives of the workers and the Social Democrats advocate a general reduction of the working day; Employers and the Popular Party are against: the state of the debate.
Unions call for the redistribution of work
The ÖGB provided a package of proposals to reduce unemployment from more than 420,000 people currently to 300,000 by next summer. In addition to reduced-time work, part-time work for older workers, the solidarity bonus model, the four-day week, a sixth week of vacation and a general reduction in the weekly working day are also included: “A reduction of the working day generates employment “is the argument of the union.
The SPÖ and the Chamber of Labor have also addressed the issue. “A reduction in working hours in the form of a reduced shift has helped to overcome the crisis,” AK President Renate Anderl said on Monday at Ö1 “Morgenjournal”. The idea is to divide the available work hours among more people and have more jobs available with fewer work hours.
Full-time employees in Austria work third longest per week with 41.1 hours of work after Malta (41.3 hours) and Cyprus (41.2) in a European comparison. 39 million overtime and overtime hours annually would not be compensated in time or money. “The value of this free job corresponds to an annual income of 900 million euros or to the free work of 23,000 full-time employees,” he argues from the salaried side. Furthermore, the pressure is increasing with digitization and the turquoise blue law for the possible extension of the weekly workday.
Commercial representation for greater flexibility
The general secretary of the ÖVP-Wirtschaftsbund, Kurt Egger, cannot “gain anything” from Anderl’s demands. His argument in favor of the Labor Day Law, according to which the weekly working day can be extended, is: “Especially in times of crisis, employers and their employees need flexible solutions.” A study by EcoAustria on behalf of the Ministry of Economy shows that flexible working hours would bring “lower prices and higher demand for household goods, as well as higher income for employees.” Schedules can be flexibly adapted to the order situation. Furthermore, the average working time was reduced in 2019 compared to 2017.
Not surprisingly, Chamber of Commerce Secretary General Karlheinz Kopf already “clearly rejected” the SPÖ’s demand for a four-day week in early July, as it belongs to the same parliamentary group, the Wirtschaftsbund. Head then called France as Example of where, after a reduction in working hours, instead of more jobs, overtime in particular increased, but the unemployment rate did not decrease, but increased.
Christoph Neumayer, secretary general of the Federation of Industrialists, defends the “increase in the cost of labor” by reducing working hours. The other person’s arguments “would not improve with repeating the prayer wheel,” he said. Instead, it calls for “relief and strengthening of competitiveness” for national companies.
Wirtschaftbund and IV know that the ÖVP is on their side. The Greens want to promote the solidarity bonus model, in which four employees reduce their working hours so that a fifth person can get a job. Regarding a general reduction in working hours, Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler recently said in an interview with the “Wiener Zeitung”: “It is clear that the Greens believe that with digitization, where jobs are lost, we need a reduction of working hours in the medium term – also that we want new models of working life. ” . But these are green ideas, they are not in the joint government program. “(angry)
