At the beginning of the KV negotiations on Wednesday afternoon, the employers had ruled out an increase above the annual inflation of 3.8 percent. In addition to increased wages, employee representatives are also demanding more free time.
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For trading chairman Rainer Trefelik, this is not an option. “I think it is impossible to reach a deal that exceeds the inflation rate of the past twelve months,” he said before the start of negotiations today at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. Saying that the employees need more income, but at the same time demanding more free time, “I’m missing the point.”
“We are running out of costs”
Employer chief negotiator Trefelik referred to the general recession and consumers’ low willingness to buy. “We are running out of costs,” he emphasized and calculated that sales recently increased by 9.8 percent, but personnel costs increased by 21.3 percent. “And the view is not great,” says Trefelik.
Veronika Arnost, GPA chief negotiator on the employee side, pointed out how important proper qualifications are for domestic consumption – and that the industry is not one of the high-wage sectors anyway. Added to this is the constantly increasing work pressure. A conclusion above rolling inflation of 3.8 percent and more free time is therefore more than justified. For example, from five years of service there should be three days of leisure time, from seven years of service an additional two days and from ten years an additional day off.
After last year’s collective bargaining negotiations in retail took an unusually long time and were also accompanied by countermeasures by employees, the social partners have already set four negotiation dates for this year as a precaution, the last of which would be November 21st – which means that if an agreement is reached, the Christmas business will continue uninterrupted could. Retail is the largest employer in Austria after the public sector, with recent annual sales of 314 billion euros.
