Following the agreement in March 2016 over the government’s proposed competitiveness pact, which freezes salaries until 2017, raises annual working time by twenty-four hours, lowers the public sector holiday bonus by 30% (including health system and local municipalities), raises employee pensions and unemployment contributions, and lowers the equivalent contributions for businesses (c.f. article No. 9603), it just remained for the sectors involved to accept the provisions, and this has been done when, on 06 June, the last remaining sector, namely the metals sector, put its signature to the agreement.
The two most contentious issues were the twenty-four hour increase in working time with no change in pay and the increase in employee social contributions.
As regards the increase in working time, the employers’ body the EK, was asking for the extra time to be incorporated via three additional days of work, which could comprise a reduction in holidays and doing away with some public holidays. Somewhat paradoxically, unions were looking for more flexibility and suggested as an example that weekly
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