The 2024 collective labor agreement for the IT sector is still not final. The social partners were also unable to reach an agreement in the eighth round of negotiations. According to GPA chief negotiator Sandra Steiner, there is a lack of a ‘socially acceptable and fair offer’.
The employers offered a 6.76 percent increase in actual salaries, which is one percent lower than annual inflation. Only minimum wages must be increased by 7.8 percent, which corresponds to progressive inflation.
The union, on the other hand, is demanding an increase in actual and minimum wages by 8.5 percent. For Martin Zandonella, the employer’s negotiator, this is ‘incomprehensible’. He also criticized the union for not accepting the proposal for a two-year agreement. The union only deals in homeopathic doses, and therefore “constructive negotiations are difficult or impossible.”
Demonstration last Wednesday
Approximately 90,000 employees are covered by the IT collective labor agreement. About 2,000 of them protested in front of the Austrian Economic Chamber in Vienna on Wednesday. The GPA union sometimes pointed out the high inflation. Companies have a duty to support their employees and put pressure on the government.
The next hearing date is February 15. In most other sectors, a conclusion was reached much more quickly. Recently, almost all areas have achieved increases in wages and salaries of more than eight 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.
