The suggestion from the AMS boss John head, Fighting short-term unemployment more strongly is generating numerous reactions. As Kopf explained in the KURIER interview, companies often do not accept orders in winter because they have sent their staff to the AMS for a few weeks with the promise of re-employment.
The boss of a construction company with 60 employees confirms to the KURIER that staff are “temporarily parked”. The practice would be reinforced by the fact that December 24th and December 31st are no longer public holidays but must be paid in full. “You think carefully about which employee deserves the days off during a sales-dead period within two weeks,” says the company boss. “With more public holidays, the employment rate in my company would be higher.”
64,500 “stampers” over the winter
The practice of “stamping,” as it is called in the construction industry, continues unabated despite increasingly less snow in the winter. On average over the past three years, the winter months have been December to February 64,500 unemployed with re-employment promises at the AMS. That’s at least 20 percent of all those registered who are not looking for a job at all. At its peak in January there were 71,000. What is striking is that the number never really fell below 15,000 during the year; even over the summer months there were 20,000 “stampers”. In addition to the construction industry, temporary employment agencies, agriculture and tourism primarily bridge economic fluctuations with temporary layoffs.
According to a WIFO study commissioned by the AK Upper Austria, “intermediate parking” causes annual costs of around 700 million euros and increases the unemployment rate by one percentage point, even short “intermediate parking” phases of less than three months by about half a percentage point. If companies instead continued to employ or provide further training, unemployment could be noticeably reduced, according to WIFO.
Cost outsourcing
By terminating and rehiring companies, the companies passed on personnel costs to the AMS, which was criticized Silvia Hofbauer, Head of the Labor Market and Integration Department begg of the AK Vienna. This situation has long been denounced, particularly in temporary employment. In tourism, season extension is even encouraged, but for many companies it is “the most convenient solution” to send staff to the AMS. The employees, on the other hand, would suffer a massive loss of income as a result of the termination.
Minister for more year-round employment
How AMS boss head Hofbauer demands that companies share the costs through higher contributions to unemployment insurance. Labor Minister Korinna Schumann urgently needs savings potential in her department and is open to suggestions. Intermediate parking causes high costs and cannot be a solution. The goal must be to get more people into year-round employment.
Chamber of Commerce: Companies need a certain degree of flexibility
Die Chamber of Commerce (WKO) also wants to reduce unemployment, but points out that continuous employment is often not possible in typical seasonal sectors such as construction, tourism and agriculture. “A certain flexibility is needed here in order to be able to react to seasonal fluctuations,” says Rolf Gleißner, head of the department for social and health policy at the WKO. However, the development is declining. Since 1990, the proportion of short-term unemployed people in total unemployment has roughly halved.