The major collective agreements that have been renegotiated since the start of 2016 confirm a trend that started several years ago. Pay rises are getting increasingly smaller. At the start of the decade, pay rises would have regularly exceeded 2% to 2.5%. Now however the average oscillates around the +1.4% mark. This reduction is not solely down to lower inflation. The number of hours worked, both regular working hours as well as overtime hours is also down. Pro Ge, the large industrial union that traditionally negotiates during the autumn period has stated that in no way does it intend to take the 4.8% rise (over twenty-two months) agreed by Germany’s metals sector into account when it sets its next demands.
A slowdown in wages. Austrian wage rises continue a slowdown underway since the start of the decade. Taking into account intended pay rises and agreements struck this spring in several major industrial and services sectors, and despite lower inflation, the trend is clearly towards ‘less generous’ collective agreements. In the electronics and electro technical industry (EEI with 50,000 workers) the agreement that came into force on 01 May 2016 intends for a 1.4% pay rise, compared with 2% the pr
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