📋 Tender Overview
A new regulation of the Aliens Employment Act and the Settlement and Residence Act are intended to facilitate the admission of seasonal workers from third countries. The decision was made with the votes of the VP Greens and NEOS.Currently a maximum number of temporary foreign seasonal workers i.e. those employed in tourism and gastronomy and harvest workers is set annually. This maximum number of seasonal permits is now to be dropped. The admission of seasonal workers can also be controlled via the annual quota regulations according to the Ministry of Labor. Another change concerns employment permits for so-called regular seasonal workers. Individuals who in the past five calendar years 2017 to 2021 have been employed for at least three months in the same economic sector tourism or agriculture and forestry for at least three months can receive permits outside of contingents and without a labor market test in individual cases which relates to around 3. 100 workers will impact. The measure will be taken because the number of regular seasons with previously granted permits has meanwhile declined. Elisabeth Neler Greens noted that it was also justifiable in terms of labor market policy. In order to meet the high demand for labor the coalition parliamentary groups are also proposing a motion for a resolution offers the red-white-red card for seasonal workers. If companies switch to year-round operation the provisions for seasonal workers are currently too restrictive the resolution says. The Minister of Labor should therefore examine regulations that allow the proven key workers access to the red-white-red card. The main focus is on tourism companies that fall back on seasonal workers who then become an indispensable part of the workforce as experienced regular workers explained Rebecca Kirchbaumer VP. The aim is to create year-round prospects for these people who are valued as employees.Alois Stger SP criticized the fact that the federal government presented it as if the social partners approved the changes. The approval of the Chamber of Labor and the Austrian Trade Union Confederation was not given in the form as the explanations of the department represent which he had to record. The problem with seasonal workers in the tourism and hospitality industry as well as in harvest assistance is that working conditions have deteriorated further and further over the decades. Therefore recruiting more and more workers from third countries is a wrong approach. FP social spokeswoman Dagmar Belakowitsch fundamentally criticized the recruitment of people from third countries for seasonal work when asylum seekers were also in the country who did not do any work. Elisabeth Neler and Markus Koza from the Greens countered the criticism that the amendment and the motion for a resolution help to improve working conditions in the above-mentioned sectors in the long term. There is no doubt that further steps have to be taken.
