According to an AK survey, people in the two districts of Gmunden and Vöcklabruck spend around a quarter of their household budgets on housing and energy costs – with a strong upward trend. For more than half of the respondents, this represents a financial burden.
The prices for pellets, electricity and food are increasing in the Salzkammergut as well as in all of Austria. But the high fuel prices are particularly noticeable for the many commuters in the Salzkammergut. With an average daily distance of almost 55 kilometers, employees who depend on their car have to pay an average of 602 euros more this year than last year to get to work. Spread across the entire district, that’s an additional cost of 21.7 million euros.
Against this background, the Chamber of Labor is demanding relief for people. “The measures taken so far by the federal and state governments to combat inflation are far from sufficient,” says AK President Andreas Stangl.
In order to relieve commuters, public transport must be massively expanded. According to Stangl, the commuter allowance should be reformed and converted into a kilometer-based direct payment. The AK President demands that energy, rent and food prices should be capped and thus reduced by state intervention. At the same time, all those energy companies that are currently reporting record profits at the expense of the general public would have to skim off the excess profits and redistribute them in the interests of the common good.
Source: Nachrichten
