KV negotiations VkA (formerly Caritas)

Collective bargaining agreement

The collective agreement negotiations for the employees of the charitable employers, formerly Caritas, came to a conclusion in the second round on Wednesday. The trade unions vida and GPA achieved a wage and salary increase of 4 percent. Allowances and surcharges will also increase by 4 percent. In addition, another important demand was met: For 2025, there is an additional collective agreement that regulates the care subsidy for people in the disabled sector.

Improvements in the framework law

In addition, there are improvements in the framework law, such as easier access to the increase in hours for part-time employees and an extension of the flexitime period to six months, or in special cases up to twelve months. The definition of the flexibility surcharge has also been revised in favour of employees.

Starting situation

In the current collective agreement negotiations VkA (formerly Caritas), we are working together with the GPA trade union for better wages and working conditions.

The first round of negotiations took place on November 8. At the meeting, the employee and employer sides handed over the demands to each other and already discussed individual points.

What we demand:

• More money
  Real wages and salaries must rise above the share of inflation, especially for low incomes. We demand an increase of 20 percent in allowances and surcharges. In addition, the care subsidy is to be firmly anchored in the collective agreement. This subsidy relieves the burden in particular on those who work in the care and social sector and have completed special training.

• More free time
  In order to reduce the workload, we are striving to reduce the weekly working time to 35 hours – with full wage compensation. In addition, vida and GPA would like to extend the holiday entitlement by an additional week from 2025, which would also benefit employees who already have a sixth week of holiday.

• Better framework conditions
  In recognition of the special burdens of our colleagues, we are calling for an SEG allowance of 240 euros for activities that involve direct contact with clients or physical or psychological difficulties.

• Flexibility and on-call surcharges
  We are also advocating a flexibility surcharge for short-term service takeovers. An additional substitution surcharge is also intended to compensate for the burdens caused by increased readiness.