Salary increase agreed

Major demonstration in Vienna: 30,000 protesters expected

There had already been protests by the GÖD the previous year.

(Bild: APA/ALEX HALADA)

Just before a planned large-scale demonstration with around 30,000 public servants, a salary agreement was reached on Tuesday. The GÖD trade union had previously complained about faltering salary negotiations and called for a protest. The large-scale demonstration by civil servants has now been canceled.

With the agreement on a salary settlement, the planned large-scale demonstration on Tuesday has now been canceled. This was announced by the responsible trade unions GÖD and younion in a joint press release. According to Civil Service Minister Werner Kogler (Greens), the agreement amounts to an average of 3.5 percent and is socially staggered. The minimum increase is 82.40 euros, the maximum 437.80 euros. younion boss Christian Meidlinger initially confirmed the agreement on Ö1-Journal.

Conclusion under difficult conditions
The negotiators thus remained below the undisputed inflation rate of 3.8 percent, as demanded by Eckehard Quin, Chairman of the Public Service Union (GÖD). He insisted that purchasing power must be secured in the long term. To this end, an agreement has already been reached for 2026, where an additional 0.3 percent is to be added to inflation, which will be calculated from October 2024 to September 2025.

Kogler emphasized in a press release that the agreement was reached against the backdrop of difficult framework conditions and trade-offs. It is all too often forgotten that the public sector is in competition with the private sector. It must therefore continue to be an attractive employer, including through salary agreements. With this agreement, the government is ensuring social fairness and relief, emphasized Finance Minister Gunter Mayr.

The agreement was reached in secret negotiations which, according to Meidlinger, went on until after midnight yesterday. Today, the agreement was reached in the morning on the day before the start of the federal staff representation elections.

As a result, the large rally in the center of Vienna, which had been expected to attract up to 30,000 people, also fell through. The agreement applies to a total of 250,000 federal employees. The prerequisite is a resolution in the National Council, which is likely thanks to the SPÖ. The coalition parties no longer have a majority on their own. However, the government negotiations must also be taken into account, as the NEOS are likely to put on the brakes.

Whether the state and municipal employees, most of whom will receive the same increase, will still have to be decided in the states. A total of around 324,000 people are affected.

Tough salary negotiations in the run-up
The employee representatives were already ready to fight in the run-up to the collective bargaining negotiations. Not only because a zero pay round for civil servants was being discussed. The politicians had made them wait thirteen weeks before the collective bargaining talks began. So far, only one pay round had taken place with the government. And this despite the fact that time was of the essence, because if the increase is to take effect in January, a resolution in the National Council is also needed by January 1. 

Politicians and trade unions outraged by the head of the RH
A major topic of discussion during the first round of negotiations was an interview in the "Krone" newspaper with Court of Audit President Margit Kraker, in which she called for the wage increase for civil servants to be suspended. Politicians and the trade union were irritated by this. Kraker should focus on her tasks and not on politics, reacted August Wöginger, the executive chairman of the ÖVP, sharply. The Court of Audit is a supervisory body of parliament and not a political body. "The level of salary adjustments in the public sector is decided by politicians and not the Court of Audit," said Wöginger.