Only 4 meetings (1 in 2013) were necessary for the social partners in the Austrian banking industry to reach, on the early morning of Tuesday, April 1, an agreement providing for an average 2.15 percent wage increase for 80,000 employees. Employers in this sector – very present in Eastern Europe –say the problem with this agreement, reached after several strikes and demonstrations, was due to the low profitability of Austrian banks and notably the decrease in the profits made in Eastern Europe, notably Ukraine. Consequently, experts predict a major wave of layoffs in the sector in the coming years. Unions remind that the sector still makes a profit and that employees shouldn’t pay for banks’ mistakes.
Is the Austrian banking sector about to go through a layoff wave? “When visiting subsidiaries and during the demonstrations, we saw that the atmosphere was tense. Employees want a fair return on the increased workload. Indeed, last year, banks cut staffing by about 2.2 percent, which means more work for those who stay,” declared Helga Fichtinger, from the banking departments of the GPA-djp union, at the end of March at one of the many strikes organized in the sector. This statement issued b
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