Next escalation level in collective bargaining negotiations in retail. Today begins a nationwide week of warning strikes and rallies in the middle of the Christmas shopping season. It starts in Upper Austria – from 7.30 a.m. in the Ansfelden business park with Hofer, Forstinger, dm, Lidl, Billa Plus, Adler and NKD. According to the GPA union, work will be stopped there for two or three hours. Operations and shopping for customers might be affected depending on how companies respond and whether replacement workers are available.
The sixth round of negotiations was broken off without result following a nine-hour marathon on Saturday night. “The deal failed because of 15 euros,” said the GPA to the OÖNachrichten on Sunday. The employee representatives recently demanded a salary increase of eight percent and a fixed amount of 25 euros per month, the employer representatives offered an increase of eight percent and a fixed amount of ten euros. “The 15 euros less won’t save a business,” says the GPA.
Image: APA/Max Slovencik
Rainer Trefelik, chairman of the trade division at the Chamber of Commerce, sees it completely differently: “It adds up and has a massive impact on the salary scale.” For many companies, every tenth of a percentage point matters. “Unlike in the metal industry, our companies come from crisis to crisis,” says Trefelik in an OÖNachrichten interview: “More than 150 local suppliers have closed this year. There are around 2,000 self-employed merchants who make up 0.5 or 0.8 percent If things go well, make a one percent margin.” A salary increase of 8.2 percent would have been conceivable; more was “not affordable,” according to calculations according to Trefelik.
Image: MAX SLOVENCIK (APA)
Union chief negotiator Helga Fichtinger spoke of a “delaying tactic” on the part of employers: “That’s not fair.” The inflation underlying the discussions from October 2022 to September 2023 was 9.2 percent. The union has proposed a socially staggered degree of between 8.58 and 9.38 percent – an average of plus 8.96 percent. An opening clause for companies with problems was apparently also on the table. Fichtinger is pushing for talks at a “higher level”, for example between ÖGB boss Wolfgang Katzian and Economic Chamber President Harald Mahrer.
Business Part-time strike
Disruption in early morning traffic in Graz
The trade division is now recommending that its member companies voluntarily increase the collective minimum salaries by eight percent. The trade association supports this. A recommendation offers “no legal certainty,” criticized Fichtinger.
There is no trial date scheduled before Christmas. The GPA says they are “still ready to graduate.” Trefelik says there needs to be a “period of reflection.”
There will also be a strike this morning in the Shopping Nord shopping center in Graz, and there will also be an action on Wienerstrasse and Weinzöttlstrasse in the Styrian capital. The GPA explains that they act with “concentrated actions”, i.e. not with small strikes in many companies, but with a few larger actions that are intended to attract attention. Something is planned for Tuesday in Vienna and St. Pölten, the rest is being developed. Nothing is planned for Upper Austria at the moment except for Ansfelden.
430,000 employees in the commercial collective agreement
The commercial collective agreement (KV) concerns the salaries of 430,000 employees and 15,000 apprentices. It is the largest industry collective agreement in Austria.
Almost two thirds of the 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 around 13 percent.
Author
Alexander Zens
Economics editor
Alexander Zens
