“In court and on the high seas you are in God’s hands,” it is said. However, this is not the case if you rely on the support of the Chamber of Labor. Even if the path leads to the Supreme Court, the Chamber of Labor’s legal advisors stand by their members. Last year, in two cases from the Rohrbach district, they had to go to the final instance to get justice. In total, the district’s Chamber of Labor won 2.8 million euros for its members. The social law case of a former cleaner was particularly complex. After a lower leg amputation, she applied for disability pension, but was denied it. Only after four years and a legal process through three instances up to the Supreme Court was her disability pension retroactively awarded. “Fortunately, such a long process doesn’t happen often. But we didn’t let ourselves be dissuaded and fought for women’s rights,” says Thomas Jäger, head of the Rohrbach district office of the Chamber of Labor, about the successful outcome of the process. In another case, the AK Rohrbach was able to enforce the right to compensation for overtime hours for an employee at the OGH. “Such judgments are not just about the individual case, but also create legal certainty in similar cases,” says Jäger.
976 legal advice
A total of 976 legal consultations were carried out at the district office last year. In 44 labor law cases it was necessary to take legal action. In most cases, however, intervention by the AK was sufficient; in only four cases did the AK experts have to go to court. There were also 74 social law cases, most of which concerned pension or care benefit matters. AK Rohrbach recovered around 2.8 million euros for its members in these cases and in insolvency proceedings. One thing is shown again and again in the AK’s annual statistics: there is a difference whether a company is organized or not. 34 of the 44 labor law cases relate to employees who work in a company without a works council.
The Chamber of Labor elections will take place in Upper Austria from March 5th to 18th, in which 570,000 people are eligible to vote.
