Decision pending

Lienz: Liebherr submits application for short-time working

Short-time working or not? A decision will be made within three weeks.

(Bild: Martin Oberbichler)

The household appliance manufacturer Liebherr has submitted an application for short-time working for 960 employees at its site in Lienz in East Tyrol this week. According to a company spokesperson on Friday, the labor market service in Innsbruck will make a decision within three weeks.

However, both the company itself and Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP) had recently expressed skepticism that the application would go through.

Slump in demand
Liebherr had justified the short-time working application with a massive slump in the market for refrigerators following the coronavirus pandemic. However, the company expected the situation to ease at the beginning of 2025 because new production lines would be starting up. The company therefore did not want to lose its workforce.

However, Liebherr itself argued that there is currently not a single company in Austria on short-time working due to low unemployment.

"Economically questionable"
Kocher said that short-time work was not there to compensate for economic fluctuations. In addition, many companies are still looking for skilled workers. "Retaining them at companies that do not have enough orders for an indefinite period of time is economically questionable," he said.

The trade union, on the other hand, saw short-time work as a "suitable means", as the situation should improve at the beginning of the year and the workforce could thus be retained.