Austria Collective bargaining results in several sectors March 26, 2015

The bargaining season has started and the social partners are negotiating in several sectors. The trade unions and the employers in the banking and insurance sectors reached an agreement on a 1.78% pay increase for the 50,000 employees in the finance sector. The electro and electronics industry bargaining partners agreed to a 2% wage rise for the 50,000 employees in the sector. In the ceramic and stone industries a pay increase of 2%, with a minimum of 40 euro, was agreed, starting 1 May 2015. The agreement includes a further wage increase in 2016 (with 0.35% plus inflation index). Most unions are also pushing forward the free time option, a provision that was introduced in the collective agreements of 2013. This provision allows employees to receive their raise in time rather than money.

For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.