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In the case of “posted” people, “wage and social dumping is deliberately carried out through tricks,” criticized Bau-Holz union boss Josef Muchitsch at a joint press conference with AK President Renate Anderl.
Around 221,000 “posted” workers worked in Austria in 2021, five times as many as 15 years before. That is the highest number of posted workers in the EU behind the much larger countries Germany and France. A study on the occasion of 30 years of the internal market now shows that “wage dumping often occurs and social security contributions are not paid properly,” said Anderl.
So far, Slovenian construction companies have been a particular problem for Austria because they can legally pay their employees significantly lower wages. Although Slovenian companies have to pay the collective agreement minimum wage for orders in Austria, Slovenia has so far allowed lower social insurance to be paid for posted workers. That brings about 450 euros less non-wage labor costs per employee and month. On a construction site with 50 workers, savings of more than 110,000 euros can be made within five months, says Muchitsch. However, Slovenia has now changed the laws under pressure from the EU Commission, and from January 1, 2024, these cost savings for Slovenian companies will no longer apply.
Otherwise there are drastic cases of exploitation and wage dumping, “particularly in the construction industry,” says Anderl.
Source: Nachrichten
