Austria: Women’s Ministry launches program to promote women in businesses

Small-steps policy in a labor world where women are underrepresented.  Like most European countries, Austria is no exception to the growing debates and claims about women’s role in businesses.  In Austria, the debate is particularly thorny because the traditional school system, which encourages mothers to educate their children until they are 3, has a strong influence on labor law and the welfare system.  Thus, Austrian women can stop working for up to three years per child, keeping them away from the labor market and decreasing their average salary.  The Annual Women Management Report (Frauen.Management.Report 2012), carried out by the work chamber of Vienna, found that 43.7 percent of the 200 largest companies in Austria have no women on their board and management team.  For a majority of the remaining 200 businesses, women hold 5.1 percent of managing positions and 11.2 percent of board seats.  Against this, the Ministry of Women and Civil Service as well as union organizations have been fighting to improve women’s situation on the labor market.  The economic world, represented by the Austrian Economic Chamber, an organization which gathers all employers’ organizations, is still stuck over the introduction of statutory women’s quotas.  Therefore, Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek has to take baby steps.  First, at the end of 2011, she imposed a quota of 25 percent of women on the boards of public firms by 2013, and up to 35 percent around 2018.  Besides, public administrations are subject to priority recruitment for women.  This preference will remain in force as long as women don’t account for 50 percent of the total staff.  For their part, unions have put the improvement of women’s pay conditions at the center of collective bargaining in 2011.  They were quite successful as most collective agreements signed since then now recognize at least 10 months’ parental pay (out of 24) as working time.  This is going to have an impact on the calculation of women’s wage increases and pensions.