Austria: social conflicts defused at the Austrian post and telecom

The two social conflicts which threatened to ruin holidays for Austrians and for the new federal government were defused, both at the post and at Telekom Austria. The managements of the two companies chose to compromise with unions and put away or reduce their plans which envisaged thousands of dismissals. This turnaround needs to be put into perspective with the preparation of two laws which will be presented to the Austrian Parliament in 2009, redefining competition rules on postal and telecommunication markets. (Ref. 081031)
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The decisions made by the supervisory boards of the Austrian post and Telekom Austria, which respectively met on December 11 and December 15, 2008, both led to social appeasement. Originally, the Post wanted to lay off 9.000 employees (out of 23.000) and close 1.000 offices (out of 1.300) by 2015 (see our dispatch No. 080920). Telekom Austria announced that it wanted to part with 2.500 of its collaborators (out of 11.500 in Austria) by 2012. In addition to unions’ threat of social conflicts, th

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