After a veritable marathon of negotiations on a new collective labor agreement for commercial employees, there is still no result. The union and the Chamber of Commerce could not reach an agreement even after nine hours of discussions. The GPA now plans to hold further warning strikes and rallies from next week.
It failed because of the “economic preconditions,” WKÖ trade chairman Rainer Trefelik said after negotiations broke down. “We have calculated a wide variety of options,” says Trefelik. A salary increase of 8.2 percent would have been ‘thinkable’, more was ‘unaffordable’ for the companies. The rolling inflation rate from October 2022 to September 2023 was 9.2 percent.
Helga Fichtinger, the union’s chief negotiator, criticized the employers’ “delaying tactics”. “That’s not fair.” According to its own information, the union has proposed a social salary between 8.58 and 9.38 percent. That would mean an average salary increase of 8.96 percent. An opening clause for companies in economic difficulties was apparently also on the table.
New round planned for next week
According to the union, employers only offered a wage increase of eight percent plus ten euros. Trade unionist Fichtinger is now pushing for talks at a “higher level”, for example between ÖGB boss Wolfgang Katzian and chairman of the Economic Chamber, Harald Mahrer. There is no new round of KV negotiations scheduled for next week.
As a result of the failed negotiations, WKÖ’s federal trade department is now recommending that its member companies voluntarily increase collective minimum wages by eight percent. A recommendation offers “no legal certainty,” Fichtinger criticized.
Unrest since October
The KV talks have been going on since late October and were accompanied by company meetings, public rallies and warning strikes over the Christmas period. The union entered into negotiations demanding an eleven percent wage increase. The employers only made their opening offer in the third round with a five percent increase and a one-off payment of 800 euros.
The commercial KV concerns the salaries of 430,000 employees and 15,000 students. It is the largest industry collective labor agreement in Austria. Nearly two-thirds of the 430,000 employees are women; in retail, the share of women is even higher. Nearly 60 percent of women in retail work part-time, while the part-time rate for men is only about 13 percent.
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.
