The employees of Austro Control will not receive any wage increases in 2020 and 2021. All bonuses will be canceled for 2019 and 2020. Among other things, the Vida union and the ACG management reached an agreement with the conclusion of the new collective agreement.

The employee representatives announced a few days ago that the new KV was a compromise and criticized the state owner in particular. In contrast to most Austrian companies, Austro Control has the privilege of negotiating and concluding collective agreements itself. The management describes the KV negotiated after several rounds of negotiations as a "sustainable compromise".

For the supervisory board and the management, stabilizing the company on its own should have top priority. The ACG was hit hard by the corona crisis. By introducing short-time working over a period of three months at the beginning of the crisis, Austro Control, like many other companies, was able to make use of state support in the most difficult phase.

“The conclusion of the collective bargaining negotiations was an important first step, but we have to continue down this path consistently. Now it is a matter of putting the company on a sound foundation and making it sustainably fit for the future. With the points negotiated in the commercial contract, it was possible to ensure that the necessary reform steps are designed as socially acceptable and solidaristic as possible and that all areas of the company make appropriate contributions to stabilization, ”says Austro Control Managing Director Axel Schwarz about the outcome of the negotiations.

Overall, the result of the negotiations brings savings in the order of magnitude of around € 50 million.Together with the measures taken so far this year to reduce costs in the personnel area (e.g. short-time work, vacation cuts or admission freeze) as well as to reduce operating expenses and the planned investments, this results in 2020 savings of just under € 80 million, with a revenue shortfall of around € 140 million expected for this year.This means that an initial goal was achieved in order to compensate for the expected decline in revenue in the coming years, depending on the development of air traffic. There is currently no end in sight to the crisis, and after a brief upturn in summer, air traffic has recently declined significantly again.

With the further implementation of the strategy program, which focuses equally on stabilization and modernization, Austro Control is also to become more efficient in its processes and structures in the future, with aviation safety always at the top.

The main results of the negotiations are:

• Zero wage rounds for 2020 and 2021
• No bonuses for the years 2019 and 2020
• Standby regulation for air traffic controllers
• Freezing of the assessment basis for company pensions from the 1st collective agreement
• In addition, it was agreed to negotiate a collective agreement for new employees as quickly as possible that would meet the economic challenges of the coming years. This package also implements key recommendations made by the Court of Auditors.