The sixth round of negotiations for a new collective agreement for commercial employees also ended without a result. The union and the Chamber of Commerce were unable to agree on a deal following a marathon negotiation session that lasted more than nine hours. The GPA is now planning further warning strikes and rallies starting next week.
It failed due to the “economic framework conditions,” said WKÖ trade chairman Rainer Trefelik following the negotiations were broken off. “We have calculated a wide variety of variants,” says Trefelik. A salary increase of 8.2 percent would have been “conceivable,” but more was “unaffordable” for the companies. Rolling inflation from October 2022 to September 2023 was 9.2 percent.
Video: Negotiations collapsed – warning strikes before Christmas
The union’s chief negotiator Helga Fichtinger criticized the employers’ “delaying tactics”. “That’s not fair.” According to its own information, the union has proposed a socially graded salary between 8.58 and 9.38 percent. That would be an average salary increase of 8.96 percent. An opening clause for companies in economic difficulties was apparently also on the table. According to the union, employers only offered an increase of 8 percent plus 10 euros. Trade unionist Fichtinger is now pushing for talks at a “higher level”, for example between ÖGB boss Wolfgang Katzian and Economic Chamber President Harald Mahrer. Another round of KV negotiations is not planned for next week.
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Due to the failed negotiations, the WKÖ federal trade division is now recommending that its member companies voluntarily increase the collective minimum salaries by 8 percent. A recommendation offers “no legal certainty,” criticized Fichtinger.
The KV talks have been going on since the end of October and were accompanied by company meetings, public rallies and warning strikes during the Christmas season. The union entered the negotiations demanding an 11 percent increase in wages. The employers only made their opening offer in the third round with a plus of 5 percent and a one-off payment of 800 euros.
The commercial KV is regarding the salaries of 430,000 employees and 15,000 apprentices. It is the largest industry collective agreement in Austria. Almost two thirds of the 430,000 employees are women; in retail the proportion of women is even higher. Almost 60 percent of women in retail work part-time, while the part-time rate for men is only around 13 percent.
