The autumn wage round will start on Monday under extremely difficult circumstances. Because inflation continues to burden the population and inflation is high. The unions therefore demand that these be compared in any case – and that is currently more than nine percent. “The income increase must be at least double digits,” says PRO-GE chief negotiator Reinhold Binder in the Ö1 “Morgenjournal”.
The metal companies will negotiate from the eleventh hour, based on an inflation rate of 9.6 percent over the past twelve months. And union members will not ignore the fact that the government announced a 9.7 percent increase for pensioners at the beginning of September.
Latest deals for ten percent gross
Recently, wage and salary agreements were around ten percent plus – gross, you know. Package deliverers were an outlier; From 2024 onwards they will receive an average of 16 percent more in their accounts. Last year, the social partners in the metal technology industry agreed on an average increase in actual wages of 7.4 percent. Inflation at the time was 6.4 percent; the unions started negotiations with a demand of plus 10.6 percent.
ÖGB boss Wolfgang Katzian also called for a salary increase above inflation in the ‘Krone’ interview two weeks ago. Katzian also called for additional measures to combat inflation: “There were one-off payments and the like for those particularly affected, which is good, but far too little to do anything seriously against the inflation that so many are struggling with.”
NEOS for reducing additional costs
In the run-up to the autumn wage round, NEOS had called for a reduction in additional wage costs. “Work is taxed in Austria at an above-average rate compared to international standards. This is exactly where we should start, so that people can manage their income better again – without putting extra pressure on entrepreneurs,” said party leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger in a broadcast on Sunday.
The Austrian Trade Association (ÖGV) is calling for a suspension of the tax and premium portion of the upcoming wage increases. Because only a few small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) would be able to absorb the expected wage increases ‘in a downward economic phase’, the association wrote in a statement.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
