Image: EVA MANHART (APA)
The economic researchers from WIFO and IHS described the demand as moderate. But the industry “does not want to pay twice” for inflation, said IV President Georg Knill.
According to WIFO and IHS, the employee representatives would take the weakening industry into account with their demands. The metal industry has around 200,000 employees, plus about the same number in the metal industry, which is also about to begin negotiations. Here, too, the employer representatives have already announced that even the compensation for inflation over the past twelve months – the so-called rolling inflation – of 9.6 percent is still too high for them.
However, the employee representatives from PRO-GE and GPA have always ruled out any degree below this. In addition to the money, it is also about the framework law, such as reaching the sixth week of vacation earlier or the individual possibility of a free time option (no wage increase, but more free time).
“Inflation is not our fault”
In the Ö1 “Mittagsjournal” on Saturday, he did not want to estimate how high the deal could be from IV boss Knill’s point of view. The industrial association is not a negotiating partner in the collective bargaining negotiations, which are carried out by the social partners – the Chamber of Commerce and the trade union. “The negotiations are under particularly challenging conditions,” said IV boss Knill on Saturday. His brother Christian Knill is one of the negotiators for the Chamber of Commerce and its spokesman.
“It cannot be the case that industrial employers alone shoulder this burden of high inflation,” said Georg Knill on the radio. “The inflation was not our fault. You also have to take into account, as calculations by the Austrian National Bank also show, that the federal government’s various anti-inflation measures have compensated for 80 to 90 percent of the real wage losses. That means I’m not willing and ready that we pay inflation twice.”
Other union demands concern, among other things, the approximately 8,000 apprentices in the metal industry. After completing their apprenticeship, they will in future be placed on an equal footing with the salary scale of graduates from higher vocational schools. The income difference at the basic level is currently 390 euros gross.
Loss of real wages due to inflation
The economists from the Economic Research Institute (WIFO) and the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) do not see that high degrees lead to a wage-price spiral, as Georg Knill once again suspected on Saturday. Not least because 80 percent of production would be exported. And it is important to strengthen purchasing power with appropriate wage agreements. Nevertheless, the specter of recession hovers over the industry.
Due to the high inflation in the past few months, there has been a loss in real wages, but if the rolling inflation level is now at 9.6 percent – with inflation currently falling – there could be a noticeable increase in income again next year. A yardstick for agreement among metal workers is also the pension increase of 9.7 percent recently decided by the federal government. According to industry representatives, wage costs in the metal engineering industry amount to around ten billion euros per year, and the additional costs would be correspondingly high even with just one percent more wages.
My themes
For your saved topics were
new articles found.
info By clicking on the icon you can add the keyword to your topics.
info
By clicking on the icon you open your “my topics” page. They have of 15 keywords saved and would have to remove keywords.
info By clicking on the icon you can remove the keyword from your topics.
Add the topic to your topics.
Source: Nachrichten
