The social partners in the Austrian trade industry, the DPA-djp union and the Trade Department of the Austrian Economic Chambers (WKÖ), presented, for the first time in the sector’s history, a collective agreement valid for 2 years. On January 1, 2014, the sector’s 500,000 employees will receive a 2.5 percent wage increase. In 2015, the increase will amount to the inflation rate plus 0.4 percent. The bargaining parties rejoiced that they chose a duration that guarantees, on the one hand, a real wage increase and, on the other, security in planning wage costs. Monthly sectoral minimum wage will increase by €100 gross, divided in 2. (Ref. 130709)
For the first time in the history of Austrian trade, the social partners presented an agreement signed for 2 years. This isn’t irrelevant in a country where collective agreements are almost always limited to 12 months. It is too soon to tell whether this example will be followed in other sectors, but it is possible that Austria will do like Germany where there are more and more agreements over 12 months. In any case, the Austrian social partners didn’t do as their German colleagues who, afte
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