More good news from the union sector:
Retail Trade: Salary Increase of 3.6%After 14 hours of negotiations, representatives of the employer and employee side came to a new collective agreement for the trade sector. Salaries of the 520,000 employees will increase by 3.6% on average on 1 January 2012. Apprenticeship remuneration will go up by 3.9%.
Employees who earn a gross salary of not more than € 1,500 will receive a fix amount of € 50, which corresponds to an increase of up to 3.8%. For higher salaries the increase is 3.5%.
The union was able to push through one of its central demands. Parental leave times will be taken into account in the classification of employees and in the calculation of anniversary bonuses.
While the new agreement is “just about acceptable” for the employers, it is seen as a success by the union of private sector employees (GPA-djp). “We achieved an increase significantly above the inflation rate. We are very close to 4%”, stated Manfred Wolf, representative of the employee side. The union’s initial demand was a salary increase of 4.2% for all employees.
For the Austrian companies in the trade sector, the agreement will result in additional total cost of approximately € 650m, according to Peter Buchmüller, negotiator for the employer side.
http://www.friedlnews.com/article/retail-trade-salary-increase-of-3-6
