Read this article in:
5 May, 2003Over one million trade union members strike over government attempts to increase retirement age.
AUSTRIA: The IMF's Austrian affiliate, Gewerkschaft Metall-Textil (GMT), will join the national trade union confederation ÖGB in country-wide protests and strikes today (May 6) over government plans to increase the national retirement age. A massive demonstration is also being organised for May 13.
Some 1.4 million ÖGB members are mobilising -- from public transport, to metal and other industries, teachers, the medical profession, printing press, etc. -- for what is expected to be the country's biggest industrial action in over half a century.
Although the trade unions and their social partners had tried to defer changes in the proposed legislation so that a solution of mutual consent might have been found, the government rejected any delay and introduced a draft law to Parliament on April 29.
If passed, the legislation will prolong by five years the period for pension contributions -- from 40 to 45 years. The president of the Austrian metalworkers' union, Rudolf Nürnberger, says "the government draft means extensive cuts in future pensions of up to minus 41 per cent."