7.8 percent wage increase at Lieferando
Another partial success: Lieferando shows WKÖ in which direction it can go.
Bicycle messengers
There has been movement again in the tough collective bargaining negotiations of the bicycle messengers. After Foodora granted its salaried and freelance employees an increase of 5.8 on August 1, Lieferando is also taking a step in this direction. From September, Austria's largest employer in the food delivery sector will voluntarily pay its employees 7.8 percent more.
Vida trade unionist: "So it works after all"
For Markus Petritsch, chairman of the responsible department of the trade union vida, the wage increase is another partial success of the negotiations.
"The announced increase by Lieferando shows that the pressure of the employees is working. With numerous strikes and protest actions, we have made it clear that workers cannot be paid starvation wages. At least Lieferando has realized that, belatedly but nevertheless."
The trade unionist is thus addressing the employer's long-held position that higher pay is not feasible for him and at the same time customers would not accept higher delivery costs. "So it works after all. And wages must also go up if you as an employer do not want to be responsible for impoverishing the workforce," Petritsch emphasizes.
Real wage losses continue
Nevertheless, according to the vida trade unionist, the current development is not yet a reason to rejoice. Furthermore, the wage increase is below the inflation compensation of 8.7 percent demanded by the trade union vida. Lieferando employees will therefore have to accept a loss of real wages despite a slight improvement. And this with full-time wages close to the poverty line. "Now it's the turn of the WKÖ to finally get off the brakes and take action," said Petritsch.
WKÖ blockades must end
After several Austria-wide warning strikes and 246 days without result, vida trade unionists protested together with bicycle messengers and their works councils in front of the WKÖ building at the beginning of August for a continuation of wage negotiations. Since the employers' representation has refused to pay fair wages to the bike suppliers since the beginning of the year, the collective agreement negotiations were on hold for a long time. "By now at the latest, the Chamber of Commerce must come to its senses and understand that they are not getting any further with their blockades," says Markus Petrisch, formulating his renewed call to the collective bargaining negotiators of the WKÖ to return to the negotiating table.