Employer representatives submitted a new offer for the seventh round of negotiations. Workers want to see action instead of words.
The collective bargaining negotiations in the Austrian social economy (SWÖ) went into the seventh round on Monday afternoon. The employers started the talks with a new offer, with which one wants to meet the counterpart in terms of shortening working hours. The workers hoped for actions instead of words. The commonality: Both sides would welcome an early agreement.
SWÖ negotiator Walter Marschitz announced an approach to the employees shortly before the meeting. “We are taking a step towards reducing working hours,” he said. According to him, the new offer should be a way to bring the negotiations to a good end.
The unions had played the topic of the 35-hour week – their only demand in the CT negotiations – so high that one could no longer avoid it, said Marschitz. The employers would now have had two weeks of intensive advice. A compromise could be possible with the new offer, the SWÖ negotiator expects. “But there is not much more,” he also pointed out the limits of the freedom of movement. However, he made it very clear that he was striving for an early agreement. “We want to go towards the end,” he said on Monday.
On the part of the negotiating unions, the hope was not only for announcements, but for concrete things. “Now it is time for the words to be followed up with action,” said Michaela Guglberger, negotiator for the vida union. You have the impression that the employers first have to search and find each other. For the time being, she could not say whether this had happened with a uniform position.
Eva Scherz, negotiator for the private employees’ union (GPA-djp), also expected an offer to reduce working hours before the start of the seventh round. “The time for cozy conversations is over now,” she said. For the seventh time, workers are hearing that there should be a good offer, she complained. “It is time to do nails with heads,” said Scherz.
Negotiations have been going on since the end of November. Workers are demanding a reduction in working hours from 38 to 35 hours per week with full wage compensation. So far, employers have argued against this with limited financial resources and a feared worsening of staff shortages in the nursing sector. There have been numerous trade union strikes in the past few weeks, and the prospect of them continuing if today’s negotiations fail is renewed.
(APA)
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