As much as 98% of all employees in Austria are covered by collective agreements, which makes this country one with the highest rate of collective agreement coverage in the world.
Collective agreement, which represents *The* *Bible* for trade unions in this country, is a foundation of the Austrian labour market and secures a high level of protection for the workers.
This was proudly emphasized by the representatives of the Austrian Trade Union Confederation – OGB who organized a branch workshop for the trade unionists protecting workers in the construction and wood-processing industry in Serbia and Austria. The workshop was organized in the framework of the EU Project JUST WORK and attended by the representatives of the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia and Trade Union Confederation NEZAVISNOST.
There are 3.4 million employees and 860 different types of signed collective agreements ensuring minimum standards which are usually considerably better than those defined by the Labour Law.
One of them is the existing collective agreement covering the seafarers. Having in mind that Austria doesn’t have access to sea, it primarily refers to the inland navigation.
Trade unions carry out collective bargaining with employers’ association. Even if a worker isn’t a trade union member, collective agreement is still being applied because the employers who are members of the Chamber of Labour are obliged to adhere to it.
Strikes in Austria are relatively rare compared to other European countries because of the culture of social partnership, but they do occur when collective bargaining efforts fail, which isn’t so often.
Therefore, the hosts proudly pointed out that the last one took place 33 years ago.
OGB has 1.2 million members, which means that every third employee is an OGB member.
Project JUST WORK, conducted by trade union confederations from Austria, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Hungary and Moldova, aims to strengthen employees’ participation in decision-making, while focusing on the concept of democracy at the work place and promotion of constructive social dialogue between employers and trade unions.
