Billions in added value in the religious hospitals of Upper Austria: Employees ask themselves: "Where does the money go?"

The religious hospitals of Upper Austria generated around 1.76 billion euros in added value in 2024. The general public benefits from this - and especially the region: Every 43rd euro generated in Upper Austria comes directly from the religious hospitals there. This was pointed out by the general manager of the facilities of the Brothers of Mercy, Peter Ausweger, yesterday at a press conference of the order's hospitals. Each employee (full-time equivalent) brings the country an incredible 184,000 euros in added value per year.

Where is the thanks to those who provide the service?

Gerald Mjka, head of the health department of the trade union vida, counters the celebratory mood over these sums: "While the champagne corks are popping in the boardrooms, the employees no longer know how to cope with the workload and their concerns fall on deaf ears with politicians and managers". In view of the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations, in which employees have so far only been offered wage and salary adjustments below inflation and no offer of relief, Mjka asks the question: "Where is the thanks to those who provide this service?" Equally interesting is how high the bonus payments were, which in the meantime have flowed to the hospital management. "Employees rightly want to know in which channels all the money disappears when it obviously does not reach the working people."

Value added doubled, employees squeezed out

The considerable added value is made possible above all by an increasingly efficient use of work. Ausweger proudly spoke of a doubling of the economic output of the order hospitals in Austria as a whole since 2018. But when productivity increases are celebrated on the one hand, one must also openly state what they are based on: "Employees are squeezed to the limits of their resilience and beyond. This inevitably increases the error rate - which in turn is to the detriment of the patients," Mjka points out. "In a hospital, this means less time per patient, more pressure on staff and, more specifically, situations in which employees have to decide who they can and cannot provide necessary treatment to. This is an intolerable situation," said the vida trade unionist.

Upper Austria benefits – the staff loses?

"The pride of the hospital management should not be limited to business indicators, but should above all be directed at those who make this value creation possible in the first place with their workforce," Mjka continues. Currently, the trade union vida and the management team of the Order Hospitals of Upper Austria are in tough collective agreement negotiations. The employees are demanding inflation compensation as well as urgently needed relief through a reduction in working hours. The employers' side, on the other hand, points to a lack of public funds – and pretends to be powerless. State politicians, especially Health Minister Christine Haberlander, have been watching so far. "The calculation is actually simple: without staff, there is no added value. Now employers and politicians only have to add one plus one together," says Mjka with a view to the next round of collective agreement negotiations on February 4.