Austria: tight negotiations around the daily working time reform

In their government agreement negotiated after the national election at the end of 2013, the parties of the coalition in power in Vienna have decided to implement a major working time reform.  Its core will be increasing statutory daily working time up to 12 hours, from 10 today.  Launched in early March, the discussion led, in early April, to the presentation of a series of measures that should have a major impact on the labor world.  Nevertheless, within the framework of the Parliamentary consultation that takes place before amending the law and the Labor Code, planned before the summer, unions demanded several changes and precisions, especially one of their key claims of the past few years: broader access to the 6th week of annual leave.  For the moment, this option is only open to employees who have spent at least 25 consecutive years in the same company.  Here is an interim review.
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12-hour work day for a 50-hour work week. The key measure of the agreement currently being debated by the two parties of the federal government and the social partners is the increase in daily working time, from 10 up to 12 hours. Conservative Minister for Economic Affairs Reinhld Mitterlehner immediately specified that the plan was not for “the 12-hour workday to apply to all Austrian workers.” Actually, the negotiators plan that the 12-hour workday will be possible but within a specific fr

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