Union Rights, Gender pay gap, Strike, Austria

After a strong turnout for its national warning strike in private hospitals, the vida trade union is calling on the employers to get negotiations going again and make a decent pay offer. The union wants a €2000 minimum monthly salary in the sector and a pay increase above inflation not just to support workers’ purchasing power but to bring the agreement more in line with others in healthcare. Vida is also calling for urgent action to improve pay and conditions as a step towards tackling the staffing shortage among midwives. As a first step the union wants to see all midwives to be covered by

The vida trade union organised a warning strike in 25 facilities across the country in support of its demands for higher pay for the 10,000 workers employed in the private hospital sector. The union is demanding a pay rise above inflation and a monthly minimum salary of €2000 and argues strongly that it is crucial to improve the pay and conditions for workers to make the sector more attractive and tackle staff shortages and overwork. Meanwhile, the GPA trade union has negotiated a new collective agreement in the electricity sector which delivers pay rises of 8.6%-9.6% along with increases in

The younion and GÖD public sector unions have negotiated a 7.15% pay rise from 1 January next year with a 7.32% increase on allowances. However, the minimum guaranteed increase of €170 a month wiil mean that the lowest paid workers will see pay rise by 9.41%. Meanwhile, the vida and GPA private services unions have concluded a new collective agreement covering 130,000 employees in the private health, social and care sector. The two unions welcomed the 8% wage increase from 1 January 2023 along with the guaranteed minimum rise of €175 a month that means an increase of 10.2% for the lowest paid

The vida and GPA-djp private service unions will be coordinating further warning strikes on 26 and 27 February to put pressure on the employers in the negotiations covering 125000 workers in private health and social care. This follows the sixth round of bargaining which ended again without a concrete proposal from the employers. The unions are determined to press on with their central demand of a 35-hour week while maintaining pay and with an appropriate increase in staffing.

21 October is marked as equal pay day in Austria where the gender pay gap is one of the biggest in Europe at 19.7%. This is based on a full-time woman worker getting an average of EUR 41785 compared to EUR 52033 for a man. This is the equivalent of women working for free for 72 days - hence setting the date as 21 October. Unions highlight the problems of part-time work and unpaid care as contributing to the problem. While 47% of women work part time only 11% of men do.

The GPA-djp private services union has strongly attacked the VKKJ organisation that provides care to disabled children for using an injunction to try to prevent its works councils from organising any kind of strike or protest to secure improvements in pay and conditions. The VKKJ has not signed up to the social services sector agreement and the works councils had successfully campaigned to bring pay at the organisation in line with that agreement but that's when VKKJ took the legal step. The union has offered to go to mediation but the employer has rejected this. The GPA-djp will strongly