Traditionally, at the start of the autumn wage round in Austria, all eyes are on the metal industry. This year, however, the negotiations are going a little differently because the metallers agreed to a two-year deal last year. Things are starting to happen in many other industries these days.
Tomorrow, Monday, the transport and services union vida will present its demands for more than 224,500 employees in the railways, freight transport (trucks), private bus companies in public transport as well as for workers in trade and cleaning. The union says that this year’s autumn wage round is dominated by the need for workers, which cuts across all industries.
Inflation has declined – only slowly. But that doesn’t mean that life has become cheaper for employees, but rather that the costs of rent, food and leisure activities have continued to rise, albeit more moderately. According to vida, the government’s cost-of-living bonus payments have long since evaporated. The employer side is still largely keeping a low profile.
While the breweries already started their negotiations last week, two sectors with hundreds of thousands of employees in Austria are a little later: October 22nd is the first round of negotiations for the around 130,000 employees in the private health and social sector. And the next day, negotiations begin for the more than 500,000 retail employees.
