Austrian employers fail in fragmentation move

An attempt by the Austrian employers’ organisation to fragment bargaining in the metalworking industry seems to have comprehensively failed, with the unions able to achieve identical settlements in separate negotiations.

In summer, the six employers’ associations in the metalworking and energy industries announced that they wanted to end the previous practice of joint negotiations and instead negotiate separately. Their argument was that the economic situation of the various parts of the industry was “becoming increasingly divergent” and that it therefore made sense to have separate negotiations and agreements for each group.

The unions opposed this, describing it as “a clear breach of social partnership”, but finally agreed to hold separate negotiations.

These have now been concluded with the employers’ associations for engineering, foundries, vehicle building, gas and heating, non-ferrous metals and steel and mining, and in each case the key terms of the final settlements have been identical. The increases are above inflation, currently 2.8% (October), although less than the 4.2% achieved in 2011.

All six agreements provide for a 3.4% in the basic rates set out in the agreement, while the rates actually paid in companies will go up by 3.3% and other payments go up by 3.0%. All six start on 1 November and run for 12 months, and they all set a basic minimum rate of €1,636.35 a month.

Overall, the deal was “hard, but fair” in the view of Rainer Wimmer, the main negotiator for the PRO-GE union.