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08. 02. 12. - 20:30

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08. 02. 12. - 20:30

Foglar infuriated by 'tactical games'

Austrian Trade Union (ÖGB) President Erich Foglar has accused the vice chancellor of "playing games".

Foglar said yesterday (Tues) People’s Party (ÖVP) chairman Michael Spindelegger was trying to play "tactical games" by claiming that his party and the Social Democrats (SPÖ) managed to agree on substantial details of the austerity package. Spindelegger said on Sunday the government would ensure that no Austrian younger than 50 retired due to invalidity.

The ÖVP head and Austrian foreign minister also said pension union chiefs would be offered two possible options for how cuts would affect retired Austrians in the coming years. Almost 2.25 million residents of the country received a pension in 2011. Figures show that 330,000 of them were registered as invalidity pensioners.

Foglar told radio station Ö1 that the ÖGB would certainly fight the savings package if it failed to feature inheritance taxes and higher charges on assets and large incomes. The SPÖ member said inheritances were "generated without any achievement". Austria stopped charging a tax on inheritances and gifts in 2008 due to high administration costs and a court ruling calling for a reform of the measure.

The ÖGB boss also said he knew that SPÖ and ÖVP had not agreed on a number of crucial aspects of the austerity measures yet. Foglar said he wondered what Spindelegger tried to achieve by claiming so.

SPÖ Chancellor Werner Faymann reacted to the vice chancellor’s statements by announcing that he disapproved the hasty revelation of details. The SPÖ leader also promised that monthly pensions of 1,000 Euros or less would not be frozen. This pledge caused a stir as it indicated in the opinion of some observers that higher pensions would not be increased in some of the coming years.

Public servants’ representatives warned that negotiations with the government "will take a long time" if the coalition’s cutbacks failed to significantly affect rich Austrians. Civil service sector unionists stressed that general measures such as tax increases and pension cuts would affect the 300,000 people they represented.

High-ranking members of the GÖD, the public servants’ department in the ÖGB, also underlined yesterday that no discussions with the government had taken place so far. They claimed that previous meetings with ministers had been nothing but "information events" set up by the coalition which did not feature an opportunity to speak about any details.

Unionists representing Austria’s public servants are set to gather with SPÖ Minister for Civil Servants Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek to hear how the government’s planned spending cuts may affect their incomes and pensions. Their salaries rose by 2.95 per cent as of 1 February. Social systems expert Bernd Marin said the settlement between GÖD President Fritz Neugebauer and the government was "not very creative".

Economist Bernhard Felderer upset Neugebauer by appealing to Social Democrats and ÖVP to freeze civil servants’ wages because of Austria’s high debts. Felderer emphasised that public servants in other European countries were affected much worse by the global economy’s recent setbacks than people working for public institutions in Austria.

Reports have it that the government – which wants to reduce the budget deficit from 3.3 per cent in 2011 to three per cent or less in 2017 – plans to heave an additional tax of around three per cent on civil servants’ salaries soon. SPÖ and ÖVP may justify such a measure by making aware of the comparably comfortable situation of public servants as far as job security is concerned.

Austrian Times

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