In Austria, the Austrian Social Economy Professional Association (SWÖ) and the workers’ union GPA agreed on a wage increase after long collective bargaining negotiations.
In the third and final round of negotiations on the ‘Social Economy Collective Agreement’ on Monday, the representatives of the negotiating parties agreed on a wage increase of 9.2 percent, the SWÖ announced on Tuesday.
The changes will come into force on January 1, 2024 and will affect 110,000 employees from over 100 different professional groups. In addition to an increase in wages, an increase in the flexibility allowance, compensation for specific burdens in the area of disability and the full crediting of relevant previous service periods with the same employer were also agreed.
“With this agreement, we were able to send a strong signal for the 110,000 employees in the social and health sectors who were burdened with high costs due to inflation last year,” says SWÖ negotiator Walter Marschitz.
The Austrian Social Economy is the largest umbrella organization of social and health companies in Austria and includes more than 590 member organizations. With around 270,000 members, the GPA is the union with the largest membership in Austria.