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After Testy Talks, Austrian Chemical Workers Agree to 4.35% Wage Hikes

16 May, 2012

The two unions representing 43,000 Austrian chemical workers – ICEM affiliate PRO-GE and GPA-djp – reached 2012-13 wage terms with Fachverband der Chemischen Industrie (FCIO), the Chemical Industry Association on 11 May. The deal came following four difficult rounds of bargaining, and also came after public protests and authorisation for warning strikes late last week by PRO-GE’s General Board.

The result was an increase in minimum salaries of 4.5%, effective 1 May, and actual increases for all workers of 4.35%, or at least a monthly minimum increase of €90 that, in essence, will lift the pay for lower salaried workers to over 5%.

The agreement is for 12 months and covers some 270 chemical companies represented by FCIO.

The unions won a 4.5% pay increase for apprentices, 4.5% added to shift and night shift premiums, and a 3.2% hike to work allowance benefits.

3 May Manifestation in Schwechat

But perhaps most notable in the new collective agreement is improved maternal leave language whereby women can spend up to two years at home, with 16 months of that credited in calculation of wage increases and retirement benefits. The unions also won for chemical workers added bereavement leave in cases of death of children, either those living at home or away from home.

Deputy PRO-GE Chairman Alfred Artmäuer and GPA-djp Secretary Roman Krenn, who jointly led the unions’ bargaining efforts, credited shop stewards across the Alpine nation for conducting meetings and mobilising chemical workers for the favourable agreement after the third round of talks failed on 27 April.

Indicative of the mobilisations was a 3 May one in Schwechat near Vienna where 800 workers manifested at a Borealis polyolefin plant.