In Austria we are seeing the beginning of the “spring of collective negotiations”. On Wednesday 11 March, social partners from the banking and insurance sectors announced that they had reached an agreement on a 1.78% salary increase for the 50,000 employees in the finance sector. On the same day, the social partners from the industrial sector (excluding metal and automobile), presented their demands, concerning the paper, textile, electronic, electro-technical, chemical and glass industries – 120,000 employees in total. The industrial sector hopes for an increase of over 2%, as well as an option allowing for more free time as opposed to more money. The negotiations, which began on 10 March with the paper industry, will go on until June.
A bleak backdrop but low inflation. These negotiations, which came to an end on 11 March in the finance sector and began on the same day in the industrial sector, are occurring in a gloomy economic climate. In 2014, the Austrian economy only grew by 0.3 % (having grown by the same amount in 2013). As regards unemployment, there was a drop at the end of last year, but has been rising again since the beginning of 2015. Last February, the level of unemployment was 10.8% according to national esti
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