Image: HELMUT FOHRINGER (APA)
Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) has meanwhile offered to extend the inflation bonus by one year if negotiators agree on one-off payments.
According to union chief negotiator Reinhold Binder (PRO-GE), the outcome is open, “at the moment it’s all about a button.” Negotiator Karl Dürtscher from the GPA union was not very optimistic in advance: “We are preparing everything for the strike because it is not foreseeable that we will come to an agreement,” he said in the ORF’s Ö1 “Morgenjournal”. Dürtscher demands that employees be paid by the companies even in the event of a strike.
Employer chief negotiator Christian Knill sees it differently: If there is a work stoppage, “the employees will be deregistered for the time they stop work and will then be compensated accordingly via the strike fund,” he clarified.
More on the subject:
- Metalworkers’ union: “Preparing everything for the strike”
- Agreement or strike? Today is the day of decision for the metalheads
Finance Minister Brunner has now come forward with a proposal that is intended to make one-off payments, which are favored by employers, more attractive. The proposal envisages that the cost-of-living bonus be extended again for another year if the social partners want this – so up to 3,000 euros could be paid out tax- and social security-free in the coming year. However, the entire amount would have to be part of the collective agreement or a similar employment agreement, otherwise the benefit would no longer apply, said Brunner today in the Ö1 “Spring Journal”.
The inflation bonus was introduced in 2022 for the calendar years 2022 and 2023. According to the Ministry of Finance, this bonus was paid out to around 1.2 million people in 2022. There are no figures for 2023 yet.
Although the hoteliers’ association is not directly affected today, it has taken a liking to the Finance Minister’s proposal: in their view, it is an offer that employees cannot refuse. “If the Chamber of Labor and the union are concerned about purchasing power, prosperity and jobs, they can only agree,” explained the ÖHV.
If today’s round of negotiations also fails and a strike occurs, that would be a rarity: In the metal industry, there were recent strikes in around 200 companies with 100,000 employees in 2011 and in over 240 companies with more than 1,000 employees in 2018 70,000 employees.
Video: ORF reporter Vanessa Gruber on the Metaller negotiations
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