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By Verena Langegger
Innsbruck – The Austrian Confederation of Trade Unions is ready to fight. "The horrors must be fought," says Tyrol union leader Philip Wohlgemuth. It is still realistic. The 12-hour day was decided, "but we are still against". Now must be thought politically, now must be fought the 60-hour week. The requirements of the ÖGB are clear: "We want a week of 36 hours, so a week of 4 days or a sixth week of vacation". Wolfgang Katzian, CEO of ÖGB, calls "rules of the game", which are respected. The new law on working time allows entrepreneurs to tax 12-hour workdays without having a say, business agreements are no longer needed, every employer can do as he is.
The law gives workers free choice if they want money or leisure for overtime. "But that does not mean that people can take their free time whenever they want: we are not talking about a right to self-determination in the law," said ÖGB head. . It is only if it existed that it would be a positive flexibilisation that people wanted.
Therefore, an event at the scale of Austria is scheduled for September 18, there will be a conference of all the negotiators of all the unions. At this conference, the common line will be defined in collective bargaining. "The objective is undoubtedly to conclude good wage agreements," says Wohlgemuth. He also calls for a return to the negotiating table. "We want to talk about our concerns to the buyers of this law." For decades, social partnership has led to social peace talks and Wohlgemuth continues to focus on negotiations between employers and employees.
The criticism of social partnership, such as the Federation of Industrialists (IV), did not matter to him. Shortly before the formation of a new government in the fall of 2017, Georg Kapsch, president of the Federation of Industrialists, announced his wishes to the future government and said the social partnership had survived.
Wohlgemuth is obviously not that opinion. In addition, the IV had never heard of social partnership anyway. "The social partnership continues to have its legitimacy," says the Tyrolean. In Tyrol, the model is also very successful. Especially in the Oberland, ÖGB measures are in progress. Thus, the ÖGB requires an active labor market policy and an extension of the industrial mix in order to create additional jobs. In the fall, the union plans in all cases "pin bites", what actions should be, Wohlgemuth does not want to betray. "But nothing is excluded, from negotiations to labor disputes," he says. A conversation with President Alexander Van der Bellen is definitely planned. This has already strengthened the unions in the ÖGB Federal Congress.
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