Adjustment with inflation and privatization rumors. Six meetings were needed before the ÖBB’s social partners were able to reach an agreement on a 2.4% increase between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012. Bonuses for night work will follow the same rate, as well as the benefits given to apprentices training to be travelling personnel. “With this agreement, train drivers’ pay will fully be adjusted to the increase in inflation rate over the past 12 months. This is a fair increase” declared Wilhelm Haberzettl, leader of the central WC and of the ‘railway’ section of the Vida union. ÖBB chair Christian Kern also thinks that the “compromise is reasonable” even though it represents an ultimate limit for a company whose accounts are still in the red and with nearly €20bn in debt. At the previous meeting, Kern proposed a 2% wage increase and a €500 single bonus, but only if the ÖBB’s accounts were more balanced at the end of 2011. Vida had asked for a 3.2% increase. Last year, only employees earning less than €2,100 a month got a €35 monthly increase.
After tough wage negotiations, the social partners of the ÖBB, the national Austrian railway, finally agreed, on Wednesday, June 22nd, on a 2.4% wage increase over twelve months. This increase is equivalent to that of the inflation rate for the past year. The rail and services union, Visa, said this outcome was even more “reasonable” since, last year, a great deal of the 42,500 train drivers received no increase whatsoever. However, this compromise was reached in a venomous atmosphere. Inde
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