“You have to change the working conditions something, not tighten the thumbscrews even tighter,” he said in an interview with the “Wiener Zeitung”. He points to a low net replacement rate from an international perspective. “72 percent of the long-term unemployed are at risk of poverty. These are people who are pushed into poverty with it. That will not happen with the Greens,” Mückstein clarified.
Before the corona pandemic, the government agreed that poverty in Austria should be halved by the end of the legislative period. “With Corona the problems have actually gotten bigger. We have to redefine this goal because there are probably more people at risk of poverty. That is why I consider the reduction in unemployment benefits to be questionable,” said the minister.
“Turn many screws”
He cites tourism as an example. “When I look at areas like tourism, the working conditions in recent years have been such that fewer and fewer people have decided to work there. You should offer people good working conditions and they’ll come back,” the minister said.
Mückstein said: “There are many long-term unemployed, for whom the little extra income is an essential factor so that they can be put into work . I’m cautiously skeptical about that. We have to turn a lot of screws, that can only be part of an overall solution. “
