ÖGB boss Katzian for expanding the fuel price cap

The current fuel price brake expires next Monday at the end of August. From the Ministry of Economic Affairs Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer (ÖVP) said on Saturday according to “Zeit im Bild” that discussions were still ongoing about how to proceed.

At the end of July, the fuel price brake was extended in a slimmed-down version until the end of August without any margin limit. In addition to the reduction in the mineral oil tax (MöSt) by 1.9 cents per liter, the gas stations still have to pass on price reductions in international price quotations. The ÖGB had already criticized the end of the margin regulation at the end of July.

No blanket crisis agreements in wage negotiations

From the union boss’s point of view, there will be no blanket crisis agreements in the autumn wage rounds: “Anyone who believes that crisis mode will become permanent mode has made a mistake; we won’t do that.” People’s purchasing power should not decline permanently. According to Katzian, “good progress has been made” with inflation: “But if inflation falls, that doesn’t mean that something will become cheaper, but rather that it will no longer be as expensive as before.”

The basis for the salary agreements must be rolling inflation. However, the ÖGB boss emphasized that each industry will be “taken a close look at”: “How is the industry doing, what are the respective framework conditions, and we can react to them.” If an industry is doing badly, “you can make crisis deals, as we have shown, but it cannot be a permanent situation.”

Katzian expects the resources of the insolvency compensation fund to increase

As far as the impending lack of money in the insolvency compensation fund (IEF) is concerned, Katzian expects the funds to be increased again. During the last reduction to date under the then Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP), he promised that if the funds were not sufficient, they would have to be increased again. And that is exactly the case now, “that is also in the law, and I expect the government to implement it,” said Katzian, who is unimpressed by the resistance from the ÖVP and NEOS, which strictly reject higher non-wage labor costs.

Labor Minister Korinna Schumann (SPÖ) is now asked to prepare a corresponding draft law and send it to coordination, said Katzian.