“Long years of practice” – secretaries of state would have accumulated too much

In concrete terms, this concerns the salary immediately after starting your job, as a response from the Chancellery to NEOS and SPÖ federal councilors suggests. Because only when the state secretaries have been given their responsibilities can they receive a higher salary.

Content is crucial
In the case of the incumbents, however, this amount would already have been paid after the swearing-in. The Chancellery writes about a “long-standing state practice”. If the secretaries of state are given substantive tasks by their ministers, which is the rule, they will receive around 17,000 euros per month. If they are only representatives, about 1900 euros less per month will be provided.

Recently, however, the problem arose with State Secretaries Florian Tursky (ÖVP) and Susanne Kraus-Winkler (ÖVP) that their responsibilities had to be assigned first to the respective department due to changes in the law at the Federal Ministry.

SPÖ and NEOS demand refunds
Digitization had to be transferred to the Ministry of Finance, just as tourism had to be transferred to the Economic Affairs Department. Partly due to a parliamentary error, the process took about two months.

This means that the new secretaries of state have been dealing with the issue from the start of their work, but do not yet have any formal powers to do so. According to the SPÖ and NEOS, they too should not have received the full benefit. They demand reimbursement of the two salaries. The Chancellery and the Ministry of Civil Servants are now investigating the matter.