2023-09-20 22:34:47
Blocked partial retirement will expire in 2029, and the processing of child allowances for low-income households will be clarified
Vienna (PK) – To Implementation of an EU directive on the compatibility of work and private life for parents and caring relatives National Council Today the majority voted in favor of the corresponding legal changes. Specifically planned are, among other things, two non-transferable months of parental leave per parent, a doubling of the family time bonus, an expansion of care leave and protection once morest discrimination in the Equal Treatment Act.
The SPÖ and FPÖ criticized what they saw as the shortening of the waiting period. While the Social Democrats missed an obligation for fathers to be involved, the Freedom Party spoke of an “excessive and complicated solution”. The NEOS described the implementation of the EU regulation as a “minimal variant”. For the ÖVP and the Greens, however, it is a practical solution to promote father participation. Since the total amount of childcare allowance remains the same, families will not be financially disadvantaged.
The majority also gave the green light Amendment of the Unemployment Insurance Act, which will lead to the gradual cessation of funding for the blocked partial retirement option by 2029. This is also accompanied by the new regulation and expansion of the education bonus from 2024, which will be paid out in addition to unemployment benefit in the case of training and reintegration measures. There were also demands for partial retirement from the opposition, but these did not find a majority. While SPÖ and FPÖ They demand that they speak out once morest the abolition of blocked partial retirement NEOS this with more speed.
Another resolution passed by a majority concerns the Processing of the special child allowance for households at risk of poverty of €60 per child. In addition, the Tourism report for 2022 accepted unanimously. The majority of MPs took note of one Collective report of the Committee for Petitions and Citizens’ Initiatives.
The amendment to parental leave is intended to contribute to a fairer distribution of care responsibilities
In order to distribute care and nursing tasks more fairly between men and women, each parent will in future have to provide at least two months of parental leave. Only then will you be entitled to the full 24 months of maternity leave. If only one parent – such as the mother – goes on maternity leave, the duration is shortened to 22 months. There is an exception for single parents: They can still take parental leave until their child’s second year of life. By means of an amendment, the ÖVP and the Greens have stipulated, among other things, that for parents where one parent is not entitled to parental leave (e.g. self-employed or unemployed), the full 24 months can be used by the other parent.
The family time bonus, i.e. the financial support for fathers who dedicate themselves to the family immediately following the birth, will in future amount to €47.82 per day and will therefore be doubled. In order to implement the EU directive, there are also changes to care leave. In the future, people can also be released to care for close relatives if they do not live in the same household. There may also be exemption to care for people in the same household, even if they are not relatives. Furthermore, the Equal Treatment Act introduces a ban on discrimination in the case of parental leave, care leave and other leave of absence for family reasons, even if the reason for discrimination is not gender. In addition, it comes to Clarifications in the Federal Equal Treatment Actto protect public sector employees from discrimination.
However, the motions for resolutions submitted by the SPÖ and FPÖ during the debate did not find a majority. While the Social Democrats are in favor of a legal right to all-day, free childcare from the age of one and for a permanent increase in the federal budget for elementary education, the Freedom Party is advocating a child protection package once morest sexual abuse. This should include, among other things, a lifelong ban for perpetrators from working wherever they have to do with minors and all other groups of people in need of protection, a drastic tightening of the minimum and maximum penalties up to life imprisonment and a lifelong criminal record entry.
Petra Wimmer (SPÖ) criticized the shortening to 22 months. The decision ignores the realities of life of the families. Many families would like to share childcare, but this is often not financially possible. According to Wimmer, what is needed is a massive expansion and a legal right to childcare. Her party colleague Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek spoke of a “novel”. The implementation of the EU directive is a year overdue. Today’s decision did not implement any obligation for fathers to participate, as in Sweden or Iceland.
Rosa Ecker (FPÖ) criticized the shortening of the duration of receipt of childcare allowance as “a slap in the face for many mothers” and does not lead to a higher participation of fathers. The regulation is “excessive, complicated and complex,” said the FPÖ representative. His party stands for “making laws for the people, not for the EU and the economy,” emphasized Peter Schmiedlechner (FPÖ). Two months of maternity leave are taken away from mothers and at the same time fathers are obliged to take maternity leave. This is not regarding freedom of choice and autonomy for families.
Although his group will agree, it is the “minimum” that the EU has set. Rather, childcare facilities must be expanded so that both parents can return to work, said Michael Bernhard (NEOS). It is essential to establish a legal right to childcare from the first year of life. Henrike Brandstötter (NEOS) also spoke of a “minimal variant” that was nothing more than a beginning. The implementation of the EU directive is long overdue and only came regarding under pressure from NEOS.
Tanja Graf (ÖVP) contradicted the criticism of the opposition parties. You don’t take anything away from anyone financially, the total amount of childcare allowance remains the same and is now divided over 22 instead of 24 months if only one parent uses it. It is important that single parents are still entitled to benefits for 24 months. Families in which there is a self-employed and employed parent also still have the option of taking 24 months. The EU directive is being implemented sensibly and in a practical manner and is bringing “fresh money into the system” to promote father participation, emphasized Norbert Sieber (ÖVP). There will be no deterioration for the families; the 24 months must now be divided between both parents.
The decision promotes the fair distribution of care work by creating the framework conditions for men to be involved in childcare as early as possible, said Meri Disoski (Greens). In addition, the family time bonus is doubled and parental leave is extended until the child is eight years old. Bedrana Ribo (Greens) was pleased with the improvements for caring relatives. These would affect around a million people in Austria. It is important to continue to support them.
Block variant of partial retirement is no longer supported with public funds
Publicly funded partial retirement has existed in Austria since 2000 and can be used in two variants – continuous or blocked. Since the blocked variant essentially corresponds to an early old-age pension, it should no longer be financed from funds from the insured community and its funding should be gradually stopped from January 1, 2024 until 2029, according to the coalition proposal. The second point of the amendment concerns the so-called education bonus, which unemployed people are entitled to in addition to unemployment benefit and the general training supplement of currently €2.27 per day if they complete retraining or further training for more than four months. It will be redesigned and made permanent.
It was “a black day” for employees, said SPÖ MP Rainer Wimmer. With the expiry of the blocked partial retirement option, regulations that were in favor of employees would be abolished. To present this as an improvement is cynical, says Wimmer. The Green MP Markus Koza emphasized that this was by no means an abolition of partial retirement, but rather a gradual phasing out of funding for the block variant. If necessary, there is always the possibility of increasing funding once more. The blocked partial retirement option was only chosen by a few people and is therefore not a mass phenomenon, says Koza. He referred to the additional attractiveness of the continuous partial retirement variant: In the future, this variant will allow working hours to be reduced by 80%, something that has not happened before. ÖVP MP Bettina Zopf also rejected the claim that “partial retirement would be abolished”, saying this was a lie. Rather, partial retirement is a successful model, but the “principle of part-time work must be brought to the fore”: “We owe it to the next generations to reach the standard retirement age,” said Zopf. Continuous partial retirement was a system for gliding into retirement, while the blocked variant was an early retirement model.
ÖVP MP Michael Hammer emphasized that the situation on the labor market had changed. Every worker is needed, which is why the blocked partial retirement option is no longer effective. FPÖ MP Dagmar Belakowitsch replied that the blocked partial retirement was also chosen by older employees for health reasons and therefore did not just have a purely labor market policy aspect. Since the unemployment figures are rising once more, according to Belakowitsch, it would be too short-sighted to de facto abolish the blocked variant. Verena Nussbaum from the SPÖ reminded that there is no legal right to partial retirement and therefore it always depends on the “goodwill” of the employer as to whether one can take advantage of partial retirement. The expiry of the blocked variant would primarily be to the detriment of women, as only every second woman goes straight from an employment relationship into retirement. Nussbaum therefore calls for continuous improvements in working conditions for older workers. SPÖ MP Josef Muchitsch also referred to the lack of legal entitlement and said: “At least for people in shift work the blocked version might have been left in place.”
In her speech, Green MP Sibylle Hamann discussed the “huge new opportunities” offered by the new education bonus. It is a bonus that is paid out in addition to unemployment benefit and supports people in reorienting themselves professionally. NEOS MP Gerald Loacker criticized that high educational subsidies in addition to unemployment benefits would no longer make going to work profitable. He also recalled that NEOS had been calling for the abolition of blocked partial retirement since 2015.
Improvements to the child allowance
In view of the increase in prices, Parliament passed a special child allowance for households at risk of poverty before the summer. Among other things, recipients of social assistance and unemployment benefits as well as single parents and sole earners with low incomes will receive a special monthly payment of €60 for each child until the end of 2024. The processing of this child allowance will now be carried out with a Legislative initiative by the ÖVP and the Greens specified. In particular, it concerns provisions that are intended to avoid double funding.
A motion for a resolution tabled by the FPÖ during the debate, which called for a broad package of measures to “stop the current avalanche of costs”, did not find a majority.
Today’s decision creates an implementable and practical approach that enables the authorities to work efficiently, emphasized Norbert Sieber (ÖVP). Sieber assured that those entitled would subsequently receive the amounts that were not transferred over the summer. Barbara Neßler (Greens) agreed. The money is already available in the federal states and she hopes that it will be paid out by the end of September. The Green Party representative spoke of a socially accurate package that would reach where it was needed most.
Mario Lindner (SPÖ) saw it differently. The federal government has been leaving families “out in the cold” when it comes to inflation for more than a year; so far no family has received the additional €60 per child per month. For Peter Wurm (FPÖ), the federal government is “hopefully overwhelmed”; the ÖVP and the Greens cannot even combat the symptoms of inflation. Wurm therefore once once more spoke out in favor of new elections. For Michael Bernhard (NEOS), the federal government has forgotten regarding important groups of people when it comes to child subsidies for households at risk of poverty, which is why it is a matter of “show politics”. In addition, it would support others who don’t need it.
Tourism report 2022 documents recovery following the corona pandemic
Another item on the agenda concerned the tourism report for 2022. It addresses the unexpectedly positive development of the tourism industry following the corona-related decline in the number of holidaymakers in 2020 and 2021. Accordingly, in 2022, the pre-crisis level was almost reached once more with 39.8 million guest arrivals and almost 136.9 million overnight stays. Tourism spending by domestic and foreign guests in Austria is expected to have increased by around 87% to €35.9 billion in 2022 compared to 2021, which is only 5.3% below the pre-crisis level of 2019. However, the report also deals with the problems facing the tourism industry in Austria. In addition to inflation, especially in the energy sector, this is primarily due to the shortage of workers.
In a motion for a resolution, the Freedom Party expressed alarm that in recent years many businesses and companies, for example in the catering and hotel industries, have become massively indebted as a result of COVID-19 and would now find themselves in an extremely difficult economic situation. Their renewed demands to strengthen equity capital for companies, for example through the possibility of revaluing assets at the quarter tax rate until December 31, 2024, did not find a majority.
Report of the Petitions Committee
The collective report of the Petitions Committee, which includes eight petitions and three citizens’ initiatives, was also discussed. This includes, among other things, strengthening the public health system including measures to combat the shortage of doctors, reintroducing the military kitchen at the Allentsteig military training area and issuing humanitarian visas for those affected by the severe earthquake in Turkey and Syria. In the transport sector, citizens are concerned, among other things, with the expansion of the Klagenfurt expressway as well as the modernization and expansion of noise protection on the Inntal motorway. (Continuation of the National Council) med/bea/keg
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