Deal for health and social care workers in Austria 


Austrian unions have made a significant breakthrough with a deal for the country’s 100,000 health and social care workers. 


The settlement, backdated to 1 February, provides for a 3.2% annual pay increase, well above current inflation (1.9% in December 2018). 


There is also an extra day’s holiday for employees with two years’ service and improved working time arrangements. These guarantee a minimum five hours’ pay per day where split shifts are worked – defined as periods of work with a gap of more than 90 minutes. 


There is also a guarantee that travelling time between appointments will be paid, and a €20 bonus on top of normal pay for taking on an extra full shift to replace a missing colleague.


The two unions involved, vida and GPA-djp, see this as a “very good settlement”, which is largely a result of the widespread warning strikes before the final round of negotiations. 


The unions’ main regret is that they had not been able to make more progress on hours and holidays. 


As Barbara Teiber, the head of GPA-djp, says “working time remains on our list of demands”.


€1 = 87p on 20 February