Austria: transferring civil servants from the post and Telekom Austria to the police is harder than expected

The idea launched in September 2009 by the Austrian government was attractive.  Rather than keeping on paying civil servants doing nothing at the post and telecoms, why not transfer them to the police administration which is lacking staff?  In November 2009, the Österreichische Post and Telekom Austria signed an agreement with the Ministry of the Interior and the Police to organize this transfer on a voluntary basis.  To motivate potential candidates, Telecom Austria even announced the payment of an annual €6,000 bonus until 2014 (see our dispatch No.  091080).  One year and six months later, the intermediary report of the operation is quite unenthusiastic.  The initial goal was to transfer 1,000 by 2014, from a pool of about 2,000 civil servants potentially concerned.  The offer caused little excitement.  Because of the small number of applicants, the Post’s management raised Telekom’s bidding in early 2010, offering a €10,000 transfer bonus.  For the moment, 759 people applied (459 for the post and 300 for Telekom), of which 347 failed the police’s entrance examinations (soft version), and 81 withdrew their application.  Only 347 employees were actually transferred.  The two companies announced that, in spite of the slowness of the process, the resulting relief is still welcome.  The offer is therefore maintained.