Pensions: 500,000 Austrians take action

More than 500,000 people took strike action in Austria last month and 200,000 marched through the streets of Vienna in protest at government plans on pensions.

Key elements in the proposed changes include: a switch in the basis of calculating pensions from the best 15 years of earnings to average earnings over a 40-year period; a decrease in the value of each year's contribution, allowing for a full pension only after 45 years of contributions rather than the current 40; and the abolition of the right of long-term unemployed people to take their pension early.

Although some of these measures are to be phased in, the main union confederation, the ÖGB, estimates that they could lead to pension cuts of 13% in the near future and up to 40% in the longer term. The unions therefore called for nationwide strike action on 6 May and a demonstration in Vienna on 13 May.

The centre-right government had planned to introduce the proposals into parliament later this month but the union protests have put this in doubt.