Eurofound's COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the crisis, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for case AT-2020-31/1395 – measures in Austria
Country |
Austria
, applies locally
|
Time period | Temporary, 01 August 2020 – 30 September 2020 |
Type | Bipartite collective agreements |
Category |
Ensuring business continuity and support for essential services
– Remuneration and rewards for workers in essential services |
Author | Bernadette Allinger (Forba) and Eurofound |
Case created | 04 November 2020 (updated 06 November 2020) |
Vienna Port (Hafen Wien), a company of the city owned Wien Holding, operates the largest port in Austria encompassing three large cargo terminals. As part of the "critical infrastructure", the logistics hub at the river Danube was operational at all times during the COVID-19 pandemic and could even mark economic growth in several divisions.
In the annual bargaining round in spring, conducted between the sectoral employer organisation of the Federal Economic Chamber on behalf of Wien Hafen and the unions (the GPA-djp for white-collar workers and apprentices and the vida union for blue-collar workers), a bonus of €3,000 for "exceptional burdens" was agreed upon for all employees (including apprentices) who were in an employment relationship with the company between 1 March 2020 and 30 June 2020 and on 31 August 2020, to be paid alongside the regular monthly wage in August or September 2020. Any employees or apprentices who were only partially employed during these times, receive the bonus to aliquot parts. Besides the bonus, a wage increase of 1.99% was negotiated for the minimum wages and apprenticeship compensation, valid for two years (instead of one year, as is usually customary in Austria) due to the "volatile" economic situation. The newly updated collective agreement came into effect on 1 April 2020.
The company has 225 employees, according to information on its website. It can be assumed that all these employees are eligible to the bonus.
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Employees in standard employment
Workers in essential services |
Companies providing essential services
|
Does not apply to citizens |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
Social partners jointly
Trade unions Employers' organisations Company / Companies |
Companies
|
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative | Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative |
Form | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
The sectoral social partners were involved in the annual collective bargaining round as requested by their institutional setting and made an agreement.
The social partners are supportive of the measure which they have themselves agreed upon.
This case is sector-specific
Economic area | Sector (NACE level 2) |
---|---|
H - Transportation And Storage | H52 Warehousing and support activities for transportation |
This case is not occupation-specific.
Citation
Eurofound (2020), Corona bonus of €3000 rewards Vienna Port employees for exceptional burden, case AT-2020-31/1395 (measures in Austria), COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, http://eurofound.link/covid19eupolicywatch
Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process. All information is preliminary and subject to change.