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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
It will be recalled that within the 16 “industrial” unions in the ÖGB there are sections and sub-sections. These divisions are reflected in the agreements. For instance, among those supplied to me by Proksch for the Metal and Mine Workers Union are ones for “coal and iron mining,” for “non-coal mining”, for the “iron and metal manufacturing and fabricating industry and trade [Gewerbe] of Austria”, for the “[manual] workers in electricity-supplying undertakings of Austria”, and for the “scythe and sickle industry”. In all five instances the pacts are nationwide and the partners are one or more employer associations, the ÖGB, and the union. In all except that for the scythe and sickle industry all workers other than commercial apprentices are included; in it they too are covered. Each agreement is of indefinite duration but may be terminated by either partner after a notice period of three months. This notice may be given only on the last day of any calendar month by means of a registered letter. Negotiations for renewal or alteration are to take place within the notice period. Under this arrangement Austrians appear to believe that no-strike, no-lockout clauses make little or no sense; at any rate, they do not appear. Nor is there any provision about grievances and their adjustment, or about the interpretation of the contract. In conformity with legal prescriptions, these matters are left to the works councils (shop steward if no council exists), the labor courts, or the conciliation offices.
page 1 note 1 This clumsy term results in part from the fact that the legal stipulations concerning the establishment of employers associations contain no clear definition of mining. In practice, the greater part of the mining concerns belong to the mining and smelting association and a smaller part to the stone and ceramic association. The agreement is with the former.
page 1 note 2 By decision of the Supreme Court in 1952 the individual union acts for the ÖGB, not autonomously, in the conclusion of an agreement. Klenner, , op. cit., vol. II, pp. 1622–1623.Google Scholar
page 2 note 1 Some of these clauses appear in the national or Länder agreements of other unions. Many “works' arrangements” include a checkoff provision.
page 2 note 2 G. Weissenberg, Querschnitt durch das österreichische Sozialrecht, Wien, 1955, p. 266Google Scholar; Statistische Nachrichten, vol. 10, n.s. (07, 1955), p. 244.Google Scholar
page 2 note 3 Weissenberg, , op. cit., p. 75.Google Scholar
page 4 note 1 Under which circumstance he receives compensation for time and fare “without consideration of whether or not the trip [to the permanent location of the employing concern] is actually made”.
page 6 note 1 Reichsgesetzblatt, 1916, Nr. 69 (cited hereafter as RGB1.); Das allgemeine bürgerliche Gesetzbuch (4th ed.), Wien 1948, Sections 1154b, 1155, 1164 (cited hereafter as ABGB); BGB1., 1947, Nr. 158; Nr. 402, 412 der Beilagen zu den stenographischen Protokollen des Nationalrates (V. G. P.); BGB1., 1954, Nr. 174.
page 6 note 2 Weissenberg, , op. cit., p. 66.Google Scholar
page 8 note 1 Weissenberg, , op. cit., pp. 62ff.Google Scholar, esp. 63 and 64. The legislation does provide that what the worker saves in consequence of the cessation of work, what he earns in other employment, or what he deliberately fails to earn must be taken into account.
page 9 note 1 Noteworthy as a reflection of the reorganization of 1945 by which this union lost its distinction as the only one that carried the “industrial” principle to the extent of comprehending both manual and salaried employees.
page 9 note 2 Short-term exceptions have been made. A supplementary contract in the brick and tile industry stated that a new wage scale effective May 3, 1954, could not be altered prior to the end of 1954.
page 9 note 3 Another reason for this understanding was the wish to check the “flight from the land” of peasants and agricultural and forestry workers.
page 10 note 1 In one of the five “from 8 to 30 per cent [or] for extremely heavy work up to 40 per cent”; in another, “20 per cent”. For carpenters, piece rates may be established but a percentage norm has been set only in Vienna.
page 11 note 1 The statements in the text about food and lodging reflect the terms of the agreements in the general construction industry and in the carpentry trade. In the other three contracts the principle is the same but the details differ. For example, in the basic agreement for the auxiliary construction industry the “separation money” – designated in the document as “additional costs” – amounts each calendar day to about 300 per cent of the hourly wage of a man in the top wage category regardless of whether or no he is in that category; or was sent by the employer; or is married, widowed, divorced, single, or the support of children. The brick and tile workers do it without complicated formulae; if they can go home only once a week, they get 40 per cent added to the wage for their normal daily hours. Wood-fabricating workmen receive a bonus of 35 per cent (in health resorts of 50) on their hourly wages plus a place to sleep.
page 12 note 1 BGB1., 1954, Nr. 174, 231; ibid., 1955, Nr. 187.
page 13 note 1 Deutsches Reichsgesetzblatt I, 1942, p. 702.Google Scholar The Austrian unemployment insurance law of June 22,1949, formally abrogated this Nazi regulation, but empowered its extension by decree. Extensions from time to time have kept it in force. BGB1., 1949, Nr. 184; ibid., 1950, Nr. 154 and others.
page 14 note 1 BGB1, 1946, Nr. 81, 173, 174; ibid., 1954, Nr. 168. The special act resembles a series of Nazi decrees and orders listed in and repealed by it.
page 14 note 2 For examples, the wood-fabricating occupations include the makers of wagons, casks, musical instruments, and toys.
page 14 note 3 Of which there are several in addition to that for construction workers.
page 15 note 1 For example, Section 8 of the law of 1921 deals with the employee's “rights in case of hindrance to the performance of duties” in terms similar to, but more detailed and much more generous than those of Section 1154b of the ABGB. On this matter the collective agreement of the employees of insurance companies on “interior service” contains two relatively large pages; the stipulations are even more generous than those of the statute. The bank employees' clause is substantially briefer, does not apply to institutions with less than 50 work people, but improves upon the legal terms. For salaried personnel in industry there is a schedule of the days – one, two or three – allowed as released paid time for “family affairs”, such as births, marriages, deaths, moves to another dwelling, and the like, similar to that in the manualists' contracts previously discussed; and a six-line paragraph relative to sick leaves.
page 17 note 1 The major reason, of course, is that rates are listed for a considerable number of subsections within the section trade.
page 21 note 1 BGBl., 1948, Nr. 140.
page 22 note 1 ÖGB, Tätigkeitsbericht, 1945–1947, pp. 1/68 ff.; ibid., 1948, pp. 88–89; ibid., 1949, p. 137; ibid., 1953, p. 16; ibid., 1954, p. 137; A. Proksch, Die Gewerkschaft als Wirtschafts-und Kulturfaktor, Wien, 1955, p. 9.Google Scholar
page 23 note 1 ASVG: Handbuch zum Allgemeinen Sozialversicherungsgesetz, esp. pp. 3, 5Google Scholar; Proksch, , op. cit., pp. 9, 10Google Scholar; Weissenberg, , op. cit., pp. 59–60, 304–305.Google Scholar
page 23 note 2 ÖGB, Tätigkeitsbericht, 1954, pp. 18, 21.Google Scholar
page 24 note 1 ÖGB Kongress, 1948Google Scholar, Protokoll, , p. 4/121.Google Scholar
page 24 note 2 In his Atlantis: Idee und Wirklichkeit des Sozialismus, Frankfurt am Main 1955, esp. pp. 211 ff. The book appeared originally in Swedish.
page 24 note 3 A Theory of the Labor Movement, New York 1928, P. 126.Google Scholar
page 25 note 1 New York Times, 12 10, 1955, p. 1Google Scholar, Dec. 12, p. 20; AFL-CIO News, 12 17, 1955, p. 1.Google Scholar
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