Austria: Plumbers fear high costs after the amendment to the law

There is currently a lot of excitement in many plumbing companies. The reason is a legal resolution from July that includes plumbers in the Construction Workers’ Vacation and Severance Pay Act (BUAG).

140 companies, as IG Spengler, are vigorously defending themselves against the idea that roofing with metal should be considered an activity subject to BUAG, because this creates short-term additional costs that are sometimes “threatening to existential health” – and this is still happening this year. Without “immediate restructuring” you will go to the Constitutional Court.

Plumbers do not feel represented by the WKÖ

The changes to the BUAG and also the Construction Workers’ Bad Weather Compensation Act (BScheG) were decided by the ÖVP, Greens and SPÖ after an industry solution negotiated by the social partners.

Behind closed doors, critics are accusing the ÖVP of saying that the People’s Party may not have looked at the amendment closely enough, otherwise they would not have voted for it. For plumbing companies, with the exception of ventilation and plumbing companies, the regulations on vacation, severance pay and bridging allowances of the Construction Workers’ Holiday and Severance Pay Act now apply – and in some cases retroactively. The mixed operation regulations apply to plumbing companies that also carry out ventilation and plumbing work.

IG Spengler’s criticism particularly affects the Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) – they don’t feel represented by them. Through a request from the IG to the constitutional lawyer Daniel Ennöckl The IG sees its criticism confirmed by the commissioned legal opinion that is available to the APA.

Constitutional lawyer Ennöckl concludes that the Administrative Court did not declare that all activities of plumbing companies would necessarily fall within the scope of application of the BUAG. “In fact, this is only the case for those activities that, according to the trade regulations, can also be carried out by roofing companies.” Plumbing businesses should be viewed as “classic” mixed businesses.

The actual number of plumbing companies in Austria is difficult to determine. Although there are 2,133 valid business licenses, not all of them are actually active anymore and there are also many one-person businesses among them. There are 1,189 active email addresses – this became known through the mobilization of IG Spengler, they told the APA. In the entire specialist group of roofers, glaziers and plumbers, there are currently 16,300 employees (excluding part-time employees); according to the IG, around half are employees in plumbing businesses. The 140 IG member companies have an average of 20 to 25 employees, i.e. around 3,000.