Local police officers worked almost five million hours of pure overtime last year. As the workload continues to increase, new hires are not keeping pace with retirements, the SPÖ warns. In addition, the work of police officers is becoming increasingly dangerous and the number of people injured while on duty is increasing.
The Federal Police’s personnel offensive will continue consistently this year. The goal is to have 2,500 police officers undergo basic training, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and Federal Police Director Michael Takács announced in January. Reasons for the positive trend in applications included better starting salaries, free air-conditioning tickets for police trainees, reimbursement of driver’s license fees and looser tattoo rules.
Almost no ‘work-life balance’
However, there is also another side to the coin: there is virtually no “work-life balance” – after all, an important factor for the younger generation – in the police. The staff shortage and overtime are enormous. A real series of investigations by SPÖ security spokesman Reinhold Einwallner now shows: Austrian police forces worked almost five million hours of overtime last year (see graph below).
Simply put, this means that the officers now work almost an extra month in the office and on the street. Although there were 6.7 million overtime hours in 2016, Einwallner still considers the situation untenable: “Five million overtime hours per year is a huge additional workload. Pressure, stress, frustration and resignation increase and health problems increase. Our police officers deserve a clear step-by-step plan from the Minister of the Interior to reduce their workload,” Einwallner warns.
But overtime is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’
However, overtime does not yet cover the full extent of the additional work in the executive branch. What is not reflected in the overtime statistics, but goes beyond the regulated normal working hours, are the infamous journal working hours. These apply to civil servants on so-called rotating shifts. If you add this to the overtime, you get more than 10 million hours that Austrian police officers work outside their “normal working hours”. So there is rarely enough time for your loved ones.
According to the SPÖ, we will have to come up with something quickly, especially for the negative leader Vienna. The capital’s repeated calls for the federal government to finally improve police personnel have not yet yielded the desired results. The gist was that the workforce was unsustainable.
Dangerous operations: 1,200 wounded officers
For local police officers, serving others not only comes with terrible overtime hours, but also countless minor and serious injuries. Last year alone, the Ministry of the Interior registered exactly 1,200 injuries – 53 of which were even classified as ‘serious injuries’ – as a result of external influences.
Compared to the years 2022 (1121 injuries) and 2021 (1017), a new sad record. The responsible authorities point out that injured and non-injured officials are being counted and that more executive bodies are now operating in the country, but the corresponding statistics are not fundamentally better. The fact is that the willingness to use force between Lake Constance and Lake Neusiedler is increasing, and the committed officials in the executive branch feel this firsthand.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
