The fifth round of negotiations on a new KV railway line failed on Sunday. This has been confirmed by employer and employee representatives. So on Monday there will be warning strikes by the railway workers all day long all over Austria. Only buses and municipal transport companies run, but no regional, long-distance or night trains or S-Bahn.
Tough wage negotiations for about 50,000 railway workers had been interrupted earlier on Sunday evening and further talks were planned. However, the fronts seem too hardened.
Ask too high?
The employee representatives of the vida union are demanding 400 euros more on all KV and actual wages for the railway workers. That, according to the union, would be an average plus of 12 percent – which would be clearly higher than the current other degrees for metalworkers or civil servants. In the meantime, employers even spoke of 13.3 percent, which would mean the requirement of 400 euros – and that is too high for them.
Nevertheless, they say they still offer the best offer of the previous autumn wage round. “We offer an average of 8 percent,” explains chief employer negotiator Thomas Scheiber. “Everyone should receive plus 7.5 percent or at least 200 euros. That fits in with the signal from the union that the lower salary scales must rise faster.” The companies are also prepared to pay a one-off 1,000 euros to all employees in December as an “inflation bonus”. “That would not lead to a full compensation of inflation in the higher regions, but to an increase of up to 13 percent in the lower salary classes,” says Scheiber. “None of the collective agreements that have been concluded so far this year come close to what we offer.”
“Eight euros does not stop warning strike”
The other side sees it differently: “Eight euros does not prevent a warning strike”, says deputy Gerhard Tauchner. Chairman of the rail division of the vida union and head of the negotiating team of vida KV. Therefore, no trains will run in Austria between midnight and midnight on Monday. In the middle of the week, the railway companies were informed by trade union Vida and asked to inform travelers about this. “We ask the affected passengers for their understanding, patience and solidarity with the 50,000 railway employees and apologize for any inconvenience,” Tauchner said.
Source: Krone
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