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The wage negotiations were quite difficult last year: the metallers needed eight rounds to conclude, and after a tough struggle, the deal sealed the collective agreement shortly before the turn of the year. In other sectors, however, things took place relatively quietly.
Not so in the IT industry: Wage negotiations for around 90,000 employees across Austria started on October 30th, and there has been no agreement for more than twelve weeks. The sixth round of negotiations failed on January 15th, and the GPA wants to hold a protest in front of the Chamber of Commerce in Vienna on Wednesday afternoon. The negotiations are scheduled to continue on Thursday. Sandra Steiner, negotiator for the GPA, said she was irritated by the long negotiations in an interview with the OÖN. The IT industry is not affected by the crisis; in Vienna alone there is a shortage of 5,800 skilled workers. “The other employees have to compensate for this, the mental pressure is great,” says Steiner.
On the one hand, the industry has a collective agreement that regulates minimum salaries. Because overpayment is often voluntary in the industry, the so-called actual salaries also play an important role. Most recently, employers offered an increase of 6.25 percent on the actual salary amount and 7.25 percent on the collective agreement minimum salaries. However, the GPA requires a conclusion in which at least the average annual inflation of 7.8 percent is compensated, says Steiner.
The percentages are the one point of contention, says Martin Zandonella, chief negotiator for the employers’ side. He argues that the union would insist on its demand of almost nine percent. These increases are difficult to implement: for some software developers, personnel costs account for more than 80 percent, an obstacle in international competition because hourly rates for customers cannot be increased equally. The bigger conflict revolves around the actual salaries: the union wants to ensure that they are also increased in a binding manner, which would increase the flexibility of the companies be undermined. “Once overpayment, always overpayment” – that is a “massive intervention that doesn’t make economic sense,” says Zandonella.
The trade unionist also argues that planning security is also needed for employees who are paid via KV. Across Austria, almost 6,000 companies belong to the industry, both large companies and small and medium-sized companies. It’s similar to retail, says Steiner: “You’ve made it there too, you just have to want it.”
Last year, too, the mood during negotiations in the IT industry was similarly bad: several hundred employees gathered in Linz’s Schillerpark on January 23, 2023 for a union rally. An agreement was reached shortly afterwards. It is questionable whether this will be possible on Thursday. “I am an optimist to the bitter end,” says Steiner. Zandonella can imagine that there will at least be an attempt to reach agreement on minimum salaries.
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