Trade KV

Employees demand more money AND more free time

Retail employees want more money and more time off.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com (Symbolbild))

At the start of the collective bargaining negotiations for around 445,000 employees and apprentices in the retail sector, positions were still far apart on Wednesday. The trade union GPA is demanding a 4.8 percent pay rise from January as well as more time off, but this is out of the question for the employers.

The demand of a 4.8 percent salary increase corresponds to one percent more than the rolling inflation and the agreement of the metal industry. The employers had ruled out an increase above the annual inflation rate of 3.8 percent.

Trade union demands more pay AND more time off
In addition to the wage increase, employee representatives are also demanding more free time. For Rainer Trefelik, head of the trade union, this is not an option. I do not think it is possible to reach an agreement above the inflation rate of the past twelve months," he said before the start of negotiations at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. To say that employees need more income, but at the same time demand more time off, "I don't have the bridge".

Chief negotiator Veronika Arnost (GPA) and federal sector chairman Rainer Trefelik (WKÖ)

(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

Trefelik referred to the general recession and consumers' reluctance to spend. "We are running out of costs," he emphasized, calculating that turnover recently increased by 9.8 percent, while personnel costs rose by 21.3 percent. "And the outlook is not great," said Trefelik.

Veronika Arnost, GPA chief negotiator on the employee side, in turn pointed out how important proper agreements are for domestic consumption - and that the industry is not one of the high-wage sectors anyway. Added to this is the constantly increasing work pressure. An agreement above the rolling inflation rate of 3.8 percent and more time off is therefore more than justified. For example, three days off are to be added after five years of service, a further two days after seven years of service and an additional day off after ten years.