Austria: 3% wage increase in metals sector

On 9 November, social partners from the main branch of Austria’s metals sector (machine-tools) presented a new collective agreement, which includes a 3% pay rise for the branch's 120,000 employees. The main bulk of the agreement, applicable for 12 months as of 1 November 2017, is likely to be replicated in the five other branches of the metals industry, which employ a combined 60,000 people and are to negotiate separate deals. In addition to the pay rise, the agreement renews and extends various measures on work time flexibility, in particular the ‘working time account’ introduced in 2016.
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Real salary growth. The collective agreement is in keeping with the positive economic background in Austria, as well as Germany. It was presented on Thursday 9 November in Vienna by social partners from the country’s metals sector, namely the Association of the Austrian Machinery and Metalware Industries (FMMI) on the employer side, and the trade unions representing industry workers (PRO-GE) and private sector employees (GPA-djp). Given the way negotiations panned out, with six meetings needed,

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