New start of the SPÖ women for “Halbe-Halbe”

“Whole men do half-half.” The then SPÖ minister for women, Helga Konrad, wanted to achieve this as early as 1996 and, by law, for example, obliged men to do housework. But it was also about fairly distributing paid and unpaid work. In the run-up to the International Women’s Day next Sunday, SPÖ leader Pamela Rendi-Wagner and women’s chairwoman Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek asked for a job market package for women on Monday.

Cost: 95 million euros

Part of it is said to be a new “half-half” model. It’s about sharing family work more fairly. While women often wanted to increase, men would like to reduce working hours, as Heinisch-Hosek explained. A legal right to a reduction in working hours for a maximum of 24 months for childcare or care is specifically planned. 50 percent of the difference to full-time salary is to be reimbursed as wage replacement. There should be a legal claim for this wage replacement benefit. According to SPÖ calculations, this could cost 95 million euros a year if 10,000 take this measure. The model would apply to childcare after receiving child benefit and was explicitly linked to the condition that couples both work 80 percent of a full-time position.

Rendi-Wagner has the Icelandic model in mind when it comes to wage transparency. According to this, companies have “the debt to be brought” and must actively demonstrate that women and men receive equal wages for the same work. Failure to do so could result in punishment. “We have to act now, after all, we know that it works in other countries,” said the SPÖ leader. In addition, there was a legal right to full-time childcare from the first year of life and the promotion of all-day schools. “And we also want a legal right to switch from part-time to full-time,” emphasized Heinisch-Hosek.

Dialogue tour through Austria

The SPÖ women’s chair also announced a dialogue tour across Austria under the slogan “The pressure in the world of work is increasing”. Street campaigns and events want to know what the challenges of women’s policy are. The results are to be presented in mid-May.

However, the result of the SPÖ member survey should be available earlier. In Holy Week the answers are evaluated and then presented.

The party chairman placed the question of trust at the center of the member survey, which starts on Wednesday. Part of the dialogue tour will therefore also have to serve self-promotion. The focus is “clearly” on meetings with members and not with the state parties, said Rendi-Wagner on Monday. So far, she has received “encouragement”: “The members want to have a say and are happy when the party opens up.”

The party chairman hopes for a high level of participation. She did not want to say how high this should be with reference to the lack of reference and comparison values. A high level of participation would not only strengthen their person, but would also strengthen the movement as a whole.

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