"Krone" knows numbers

More and more AMS employees insulted and spat at

There are also repeated assaults at the AMS Graz

(Bild: Juergen Fuchs)

Verbal abuse, mobbing, damage to property: Employees of the Styrian employment service offices complained of numerous attacks by aggressive job seekers last year. The Styrian Freedom Party is now calling for better security concepts. 

Respect for teachers, police officers and public authority employees: What parents used to instil in their children as part of good manners is unfortunately a foreign concept for many of our contemporaries today. Employees of the Public Employment Service can also tell you a thing or two about this, as they often have to defend themselves against rude job seekers. This is illustrated by a parliamentary question submitted to the Styrian Freedom Party by Labor Minister Martin Kocher.

FPÖ member of the National Council Hannes Amesbauer

(Bild: APA/Eva Manhart)

According to this, there were 525 assaults in Styrian AMS offices in 2023 - in the nasty "palette": verbal abuse, mobbing, damage to property. Compared to 2020, the number of assaults literally exploded, with "only" 239 incidents recorded in the coronavirus year. The statistics even classify 91 of the attacks in the previous year as serious assaults, which also include assaults.

It must be clear to every perpetrator that verbal abuse, spitting or even physical attacks on employees in public institutions result in severe penalties.

Hannes Amesbauer (FPÖ)

The main target of the perpetrators of violence: the AMS service point in Graz-West and the surrounding area, where there were 93 attacks. "This means that the staff working on site were confronted with sometimes massive aggression more than every third working day," rages FPÖ Member of the National Council Hannes Amesbauer.

"Better security concepts are needed"
Although the unruly jobseekers did not use firearms or stabbing weapons, according to the Ministry of Labor, the police have had to deploy 63 times in the last four years. "More sophisticated security concepts are needed to protect staff from physical attacks," demands Amesbauer. In addition, assaults on AMS staff should be punished in the same way as assaults on police officers and prison guards.