Measure canceled

Teachers “irritated” by the end of the austerity package

(Bild: contrastwerkstatt - stock.adobe.com)

Due to the future government's planned austerity package, a project in the education department that was intended to relieve the burden on compulsory schools through middle management has been stopped. The trade union is "irritated".

In order to avoid an EU deficit procedure, 6.4 billion euros are to be saved, 1.1 of which are to come from the ministries. Stopping the redundancy measure for schools is expected to bring in 50 million euros. 

No relief for head teachers?
Teaching staff and head teachers at compulsory schools (especially primary and secondary schools) have long complained about being overloaded with administrative tasks. The measure adopted shortly before the election in September was intended to create the new function of a "pedagogical-administrative specialist" from fall 2025.

Like the administrators at the AHS and BMHS, they should relieve principals in the organization of lessons (timetabling, subject allocation, etc.) and communication with parents and authorities (e.g. child and youth welfare services).

Education Minister Martin Polaschek

(Bild: Screenshot APA)

Half an hour per week per class was planned, and the teachers responsible were to receive compensation as an additional service. Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) had announced that the measure would bring "noticeable relief at the school location".

Ministry: "No reduction"
As the ministry has to save 65 million euros per year, the measure will not be implemented after all. However, this is not a cut, as the ministry emphasized in the "Standard" (Saturday edition). "Rather, it is a revocation of a measure that would have been new."

"I find it very irritating that they are going public with this step without holding talks beforehand," said the head of the teachers' union Paul Kimberger (FCG), expressing his irritation. Should the measure actually be cut, it would be "a serious blow for compulsory schools". "We currently have the problem that it is difficult to find female head teachers for some schools, because it is already known how stressful this job is," teachers' representative Jürgen Pany (FSG) also emphasized on "ZiB2" on Friday evening. "So we are all the more disappointed that this is on the list of cuts to achieve the budget targets."

AMS sceptical about the removal of additional income for the unemployed
Skeptical voices were also heard on Saturday regarding the planned restriction or extensive abolition of additional income for the unemployed. Currently, they are still allowed to earn up to the marginal earnings threshold (551 euros). According to the "Kurier" newspaper, just under ten percent of the unemployed, half of whom are recipients of unemployment assistance, have recently earned a small amount of additional income. In total, this amounted to around 28,200 people. The ÖVP argues that a restriction would bring the unemployed back into the labor market more quickly, while the FPÖ and ÖVP coalition negotiators hope that this will save around 82 million euros by 2025.

Tyrol's AMS boss Sabine Platzer-Werlberger, however, expects only minor effects. In Tyrol, for example, seasonal workers in particular would take on part-time work in the off-season as a "stabilizing factor" for their time without work. According to Platzer-Werlberger in the "Tiroler Tageszeitung", companies would also have little pleasure in restricting additional earnings. For some, this is also part of securing their livelihood, emphasized Vorarlberg's AMS Managing Director Bernhard Bereuter in the "Vorarlberger Nachrichten". "Certain people who have little chance of finding fully insured employment, for example due to health, old age or low qualifications, would find it difficult."