The drafting of the legislative changes is to take place next year in the first quarter, the entry into force of the labor market reform is then planned for 2022 or then 2023. “The goal would be a reform package that is well balanced,” said Kocher on Wednesday at a press conference. The Minister of Labor ruled out the abolition of emergency aid.
Kocher wants to conduct a “reform dialogue” in the next few months, among other things, on the level of unemployment insurance, additional income opportunities and reasonableness provisions. At the presentation of the unemployment figures in the Federal Chancellery today, the Minister of Labor did not want to commit to any specifically planned changes. “It makes no sense to pick out a few points at the beginning without seeing the overall context,” said Kocher. “It’s about an overall package.” A degressive unemployment benefit – first more and then less money – will “be part of the discussion”.
Is it over for mini jobs?
Minister of Social Affairs Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) had rejected plans to tighten unemployment benefits in an interview with the “Wiener Zeitung” (Wednesday edition). Mückstein generally does not want any deterioration for the unemployed. He cannot imagine a degressive model and restriction of additional income for the unemployed. AMS board member Johannes Kopf had recently spoken out in the OÖN for an abolition of additional income for the unemployed or at least a massive restriction.
At the moment, people receiving unemployment benefit and unemployment assistance are allowed to have marginal employment – a maximum of EUR 475.86 per month – and they are not counted towards unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance. “A reform cannot lead to an increase in the risk of poverty. That would certainly not be the goal,” said Kocher on Wednesday in the “Ö1” lunch journal on ORF radio. For some unemployed, marginal employment may be an obstacle to accepting a full-time or part-time job, for other groups it is poverty prevention.
A labor market reform is only hinted at in the turquoise-green government program. With regard to the Public Employment Service (AMS) it says: “Review and revision of the instruments with regard to efficiency, employment incentives”. The labor market goals are “to focus on a sustainable reduction in unemployment”.
Right time to restart
Because the corona-related high unemployment figures have now fallen significantly, Kocher wants to discuss a labor market reform. “Therefore, now is the right time to restart a broad, fact-based and evidence-based reform dialogue on the design of unemployment insurance,” said the Labor Minister. The aim is “to develop a model as part of a comprehensive process that improves placement and at the same time provides better security for the incomes of people who have become unemployed.” In the next few months, Kocher wants to hold talks with the social partners, parliamentary parties, scientists and experts as well as the unemployed. Unemployment insurance in other European countries should also be carefully examined, for example in Sweden.
SPÖ wants care offensive, FPÖ more jobs
SPÖ social spokesman Josef Muchitsch called for a care offensive as well as more commitment against long-term unemployment and warned against cutting additional income opportunities. “A few hundred euros in additional earnings do not keep anyone from working. But they are often the only way – especially for people with handicaps – not to become completely impoverished,” said Muchitsch in a broadcast. “Eliminating the possibility of additional income does not create a single job. It is just the next step into the poverty trap.”
The FPÖ is pushing for an offensive for more new jobs and rejects tightening for the unemployed. “This black-green government and especially the labor minister have an obligation to improve the living conditions of working people in our country,” said FPÖ social spokeswoman Dagmar Belakowitsch. Workers should not be put “even more under pressure”. ÖVP club chairman and social spokesman August Wöginger and the ÖVP economic association welcomed the envisaged reform of unemployment insurance.
“The unemployed must be protected from poverty”
The union wants to discuss reforms in the labor market with Kocher. “With us there will certainly not be any cuts, because the unemployed must be protected from poverty,” said ÖGB President Wolfgang Katzian. The trade unionists are calling for unemployment benefits to be increased to 70 percent of last net income. The net replacement rate without family allowances is currently 55 percent. The Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Industry praised the planned labor market “reform dialogue”.
“It is all the more important for the job market that this momentum continues and is not slowed down by the increasing shortage of skilled workers,” said WKÖ General Secretary Karlheinz Kopf. “In order to catch up with the European top field in the field of unemployment – where we have already been – a comprehensive labor market reform will be necessary,” said IV Secretary General Christoph Neumayer.
