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In the budget, the extension of the short-time model, which should last the first three months of 2021, is estimated at 1,500 million euros.
Corona’s reduced working hours, in which the reduction in working hours is largely compensated by the state salary replacement, has so far cost 7.6 billion euros. Labor Minister Christine Aschbacher (ÖVP) explained this to the budget committee of the National Council. Basically, 12 billion euros were made available, of which 10 billion euros were approved and 7.6 billion were ultimately used up.
In the budget, the extension of the short-time model, which should last the first three months of 2021, is estimated at 1,500 million euros. According to a relay in parliamentary correspondence, the minister said it would be possible at least from today’s perspective. Since November 3, that is, with the second lockdown, the AMS has received 16,000 short-time job applications.
A package of measures to support the labor market during the crisis is also reflected in the budget estimate. The so-called “Obra Corona Foundation” will be endowed with 462 million euros in 2021. A total of 700 million euros have been earmarked for this between now and 2022. The measure aims to train up to 117,000 unemployed people and help them to reorient and develop professionally .
NEOS criticizes double support
On the committee, NEOS social spokesperson Gerald Loacker criticized the fact that in the second lockdown, companies received dual support through replacement sales and short-term work. This is not allowed in Germany, he said. Aschbacher emphasized that Austrian regulation was coordinated with the social partners and that the Ministry of Finance was also responsible for this.
Experts also place overfunding on the one hand and underfunding on the other in the “Standard” (Wednesday edition). Closed companies, such as restaurants, would be over-financed and the worst-hit companies, such as their suppliers, would receive almost nothing. Businesses closed in lockdown receive 80 percent of billing in the same month of the previous year, and neither reduced-time work assistance nor income from restaurant delivery and collection service should be included. “The cornucopia spills over there, on the one hand to preserve jobs, but on the other hand also to compensate for the lack of other specific aid measures,” says Paul Pichler from the Institute of Economics at the University of Vienna.
The situation is less optimistic for companies that have also been affected by barriers but can keep them open. The substitution of turnover does not apply to them, they have to resort to other instruments, such as the fixed cost subsidy II, but after a long setback between the Ministry of Finance and the EU Commission, companies are still waiting.
For the economist Pichler, the Austrian position on fixed cost subsidies is “incomprehensible.” You have to stick to the aid framework established by the EU, especially since it is not as restrictive as it is usually presented. In other words: with a fixed cost grant of € 800,000 and up to € 3 million in loss compensation, most companies could make ends meet. Additional money may flow for closed operations. If that’s still not enough, individual permissions are possible. Oliver Fritz of the Institute for Economic Research (Wifo) sees it in a similar way. It is not up to the EU that companies are not helped quickly and adequately, says the researcher in the “Standard”. Government policy in this regard is incomprehensible and piecemeal.
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