📋 Tender Overview
Construction workers will be entitled to a sixth week of vacation after 20 working years 1040 expectation weeks instead of the previous 25 years 1150 weeks. A joint legislative proposal by the coalition parties and the SP was approved today by the Social Council of the National Council with a large majority. The main aim of the amendment to the Construction Workers Holiday and Severance Pay Act BUAG is to promote year-round employment in the construction industry in this sense relief is being given to construction companies that employ employees during the winter months or during the winter holidays. Only the NEOS voted against the amendment but they reserve the right to vote in plenary.Specifically construction companies that employ their employees even during the winter holidays will get a significantly higher proportion of the non-wage costs reimbursed in the future. In return the surcharge to be paid by companies to finance this winter holiday regulation will be increased. In addition the surcharges for financing the bridging allowance - a kind of early pension for construction workers - are staggered according to the season. Accordingly the relevant surcharge factor for the months of January to March and December drops from 1.5 to 0.4 without endangering the financing of this service as is stated in the explanations to the bill 703 A .SP social spokesman Josef Muchitsch pointed out that the proposed changes were agreed in the course of the recent wage negotiations between the social partners. According to him further steps are planned. The changes would not result in additional costs for the public sector he assured. Rather it eases the burden on construction companies who do not park their employees at the AMS in winter. Likewise deregistering employees before Christmas no longer pays off. The talks and the negotiation of the entire package were not easy said Muchitsch. The provisions are to come into force on December 1 2020 and thus already for this winter.VP MP Laurenz Pttinger also spoke of a reasonable story and a win-win situation for employers and employees. He was happy about a - again - functioning social partnership. Pttinger expressly emphasized that in his view the regulation could not be transferred to other industries. Markus Koza Greens and Peter Wurm FP also approved the amendment.NEOS MP Gerald Loacker on the other hand was critical of the draft law although he showed understanding for the intention of the application. The existing reserves in the vacation area could also have been used to reduce non-wage costs he said. Instead there is an increase in premiums in the course of covering the costs for the winter holiday regulation. Loacker also raised concerns that social partner agreements such as these would also result in higher construction costs and that with an already unpleasant development in construction costs. It is problematic if people can no longer afford to build. According to Loacker it is still unclear how the NEOS will vote in the plenary.
