“Anyone who demands zero -wage rounds ignores who keeps this country going!”

Barbara Teiber, chair of the GPA trade union, reacts to the request of ex-KTM supervisory board Stephan Zöchling after zero-wage rounds at the upcoming collective agreement negotiations. In an interview with OE24, he also locates the cause of all location problems in central socio-political achievements such as holiday and sick leave.

“Mr. Zöchling’s dream world apparently comes without a vacation, without sick leave- and ideally also without any wage or salary increase,” said Teiber. “Anyone who demands something like this completely fails to recognize what the employees in Austria do every day.”

Teiber emphasizes: “Nulll’s wages would be a slap in the face for everyone who has long been working at the load limit in times of inflation and lack of personnel.” The GPA chairman refers to current figures from the Chamber of Labor: “Every year, workers do around 169 million overtime and overtime- a significant part of them remain unpaid. Anyone who points to the working population in this facts run at the back of the back of those who carry the system.”

The GPA chairman also criticizes the devaluation of socio-political achievements: “If vacation entitlements, sick leave or public holidays are presented as a location problem, this is a frontal attack on rights that workers have won: inside for decades.”

In conclusion, Teiber clarifies: “It is a crazy game: Whenever it becomes more economically difficult, the employees should pay – with less wages, less free time, fewer rights. We say very clearly: not with us!”