The Future Collective Agreement for Tourism

The trend-setting future KV tourism offers a variety of advantages for employees. In the future, employees will reach the sixth week of vacation much faster - namely after 16 years of service. There is also a fixed free weekend per month and a surcharge for Sunday work. The new monthly gross minimum wage has been 1,900 euros since 1 September 2023 and 2,000 euros from 1 May 2024.

Hoping for imitators

"I am pleased that JUFA Hotels approached us and concluded this trend-setting future collective agreement together with us. This is an important signal to the entire tourism industry: because only if the supply on the labour market is right, the demand of the employees will be right again," said the chairman of the trade union vida Lower Austria, Horst Pammer, at the announcement of the future collective agreement in 2023. At the same time, he expressed his hope that many more businesses from the hotel and catering industry will follow this good example. 

Employee participation

Gerhard Wendl, CEO of JUFA Hotels, commented on the forward-looking collective agreement: "It is important to create good conditions for employees in order to keep them in the company in the long term. As part of our JUFA Future Process, more than 300 employees were called upon to actively shape it and contribute their New Work ideas." He believes that the new contract has achieved the goals of implementing contemporary and family-friendly working time models, making salary levels more attractive and creating extensive development opportunities for the time being. 

Appreciation of weekend work

Petra Zimmermann, authorised signatory and head of human resources at JUFA Hotels, says: "The new collective agreement gives our employees security about what they will receive from us in terms of (extra) benefits. During the implementation in September 2023, we saw that we were rewarding long-standing employees and skilled workers in particular with more vacation days, after just 6 years, the higher salaries and the crediting of previous service periods." Her colleagues at JUFA have already told her that they feel more valued with a Sunday bonus and a free weekend per month.

Satisfied works council

The chairman of the works council of JUFA Hotels, Martin Oberfeichtner, is also satisfied with the future collective agreement, as it makes the hotels attractive for new applications. The fact that long-term employees also receive their share, such as reaching the 6th week of vacation more quickly, is another plus point for him. "Very important for me as a works council is the introduction of a fair night bonus and the Sunday bonus," emphasizes Oberfeichtner.