“If we want to maintain our prosperity, we have to work more rather than less,” she said. “Left-wing dreams” of reducing working hours “will not work”. “More rather than less will be necessary,” said Edtstadler at the House of Industry.
In the followingnoon, the minister’s office specified that it was not regarding increasing the standard working hours for full-time workers, but rather regarding getting those who currently do not have full-time work more to work.
Your host from the morning stated in a broadcast this followingnoon: “In view of the increasing shortage of work and skilled workers as well as the rising costs for the welfare state, it is appropriate to think regarding increasing the volume of work,” said the Industrial Association (IV). She points to the example of Switzerland, where the average weekly working hours actually worked by full-time employees is 42.7 hours.
For ÖGB “completely absurd”
ÖGB federal managing director Ingrid Reischl reacted with horror to Edtstadler’s statements today: “The fact that the federal government is now joining in with the chorus led by the IV and also calling for an extension of working hours is completely absurd. Down with working hours and not up, that must be the motto .” Reischl reminds us that in the previous year alone, employees in Austria worked almost 47 million hours of overtime without any monetary or time compensation. “Every fourth hour of overtime is unpaid free work,” said the union boss. And there was also criticism from the SPÖ that the ÖVP was planning a “wage theft by law”. “This planned attack on all workers can be prevented in the National Council election with one vote for the SPÖ,” said SPÖ social spokesman Josef Muchitsch.
The discussion regarding extending working hours without wage compensation, i.e. higher income, was initiated by the Industrial Association (IV). IV General Secretary Christoph Neumayer also spoke on Monday of a “countless number of public holidays” in Austria, an issue that needs to be addressed.
“High wage agreements” as a challenge
Furthermore, Edtstadler said today that the “high wage agreements” were a challenge. The aim is not to put any further strain on the economy, which is why she also withdrew the national climate plan of her colleague Leonore Gewessler (Greens) because it had not been coordinated and contained unilateral measures, some of which would not have been in Austria’s interest.
Austria has now been repeatedly asked by the EU to submit a climate plan. At the end of February it was said that only Austria and Poland were missing the plan, and Brussels has now initiated infringement proceedings, which might lead to very high fines. The deadline for submitting the plan is June.
