Trade Collective Agreement: No Agreement in Round 2
The employers had offered a salary increase of 2.25 percent, while the employees are offering 2.9 percent. The annual inflation rate underlying the negotiations is 3 percent. The union has now announced nationwide company meetings for next week.
"Today's discussions have shown that our ideas of a fair conclusion are still significantly apart," said Mario Ferrari, chief negotiator of the GPA, after the negotiation break on Thursday evening. He points out that the demanded 2.9 percent is the value that was already negotiated last year for 2026. "But on the part of the employers, there seems to be no interest in a pragmatic solution," he criticized in a statement.
Employers: No Recovery in Consumption
Employer chief negotiator Rainer Trefelik emphasized after today's meeting that the difficult environment for trade businesses "must be reflected in the KV." Austria is in its third year of recession, and despite a slight improvement in the first half of the year, there can be no talk of a sustainable recovery in consumption. "The number of insolvencies and closures in the trade sector is at a record level, unemployment has recently increased by around ten percent. This situation cannot be ignored in the trade KV," explained Trefelik.
Negotiations Continue on November 24
The next round of negotiations will take place on November 24. Today's KV negotiations at the Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) in Vienna were overshadowed by the resignation of WKÖ President Harald Mahrer. Due to high inflation, the collective agreement for trade employees, which was actually concluded for two years, had to be reopened. The social partners had agreed last year that if the inflation rate is three percent or more in the period from October 2024 to September 2025, the KV increase for 2026 must be renegotiated.
(APA/Red)
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