December 2020

The Vienna Higher Regional Court warns! Fraudsters are currently posing as representatives of the judiciary.

Scammers are always looking for new tricks that they can use to ease their victims' money or their data. So currently with a particularly perfidious scam. Fraudsters are currently manipulating their own phones in such a way that the phone number of a court appears as the calling number. Then they claim that a court is calling and request payment or ask for bank account numbers or similar information.

The Austrian judiciary warns of these attempts at fraud and states that courts never ask for payments over the phone. Courts never ask for account numbers or similar data over the phone.

“It is therefore recommended not to pay attention to such calls and under no circumstances to pay anything. In case of doubt, you can call back at the given telephone number,” said Reinhard Hinger, media spokesman for the Vienna Higher Regional Court. In all previous cases, the calls were faked.

“Unfortunately it has not yet been possible to find the real callers,” said Hinger. “They are probably either operating from abroad or using cell phones that are not registered.”

Supreme Court in Vienna

Temporary workers are part of the workforce from day one, the Supreme Court clarified in connection with the election of the works council. When electing a new works council, all leased workers count, regardless of the likely duration of their assignment and regardless of how long they have already been in the company, according to the decision (9ObA65 / 20d).

According to the Supreme Court, the fact that the number of temporary workers naturally tends to fluctuate more is irrelevant because the legislature has clearly introduced a cut-off date regulation and has even expressly stated that a later change in the number of employees has no influence on the number of works council members. So if more temporary workers are employed on the cut-off date, the works council is larger.

The number of works council members depends on the number of employees: five to nine employees are entitled to a works council, with ten to 19 employees there are two works councils, with 20 to 50 employees three, and between 51 and 100 employees four. One employee representative is added for every 100 additional employees. The deadline is the works meeting for the election of the electoral board for the works council election.

“A need of the employees to safeguard their interests in the areas assigned to the employee exists from the beginning”, so the Supreme Court in its decision published in November, of which the “Kurier” also reported on Monday.

The legal dispute revolved around the challenge of a works council election in a Styrian company. Ultimately, the Supreme Court declared the contestation to be unjustified and dismissed the lawsuit. According to the Supreme Court, the revision of the defendant workers' works council had to be followed.

It was already legally clear before the Supreme Court decision that temporary workers should be included in the permanent workforce under the works constitution. The only open question was when exactly. At the beginning of 2013, Austria amended the Temporary Employment Act (AÜG) in order to comply with an EU directive. Accordingly, temporary workers may not be treated like second-class employees.

Microsoft for Education is analyzing the behavior of users in unnecessary detail, criticizes a data protection officer.

Microsoft Teams is not only used by companies, but also by educational institutions that have switched to distance learning due to Corona. The Teams for Education variant is used here. In addition to its basic functions, Teams for Education also offers a comprehensive analysis function for educators and executives, which the Austrian data protection expert Wolfie Christl criticizes.

For example, it can be analyzed when pupils and students are working on their tasks. For example, whether they do it early in the morning or late at night. Christl also criticizes the fact that Education Analytics is activated by default.

Microsoft Teams for Education knows what students are doing late at night.https: //t.co/YIaSf3tlt7 pic.twitter.com/TVx6xwTaso

– Wolfie Christl (@WolfieChristl) December 13, 2020

In addition, the days of the week that the students are active on are also recorded in detail. According to Christl, the analyzes are exaggeratedly detailed. Nor can it be set anywhere exactly which data is collected. In addition, the possible problem of data collection is not discussed at any point. Microsoft would also use “misleading language” to describe the activities.

Microsoft writes in the corresponding support document: “Each report is only available to course owners and only includes student activities within Microsoft Teams (no personal data)”. However, it can be seen from the corresponding presentation that course owners would very well get an insight into the activities of individual pupils and students. According to Christl, these are very much personal data.

Christl points out at the same time that not only Microsoft carries out problematic monitoring of pupils and students. Other, smaller providers would “quantify everything, no matter how pointless”.

opinion

At the request of futurezone, Microsoft itself points out that it has generally committed itself to EU data protection for its products. Regarding the analysis function, it says: “Every administrator can switch the function on or off and thus also map his or her applicable data protection guidelines. Purely at the organizational level, the function results in very exciting insights, which users can benefit from in the form of services that are better adapted to their needs ”, as Microsoft Austria spokesman Thomas Lutz explains. Microsoft left it open for the time being whether the Insights feature of Teams for Education will be revised in view of the criticism.

Monitoring in Microsoft 365

Most recently, Christl was able to trigger a rethink at Microsoft with his criticism. For example, the group expanded its Microsoft 365 business software to include a productivity score, which, among other things, could be used to trace how and to what extent employees use Microsoft services. Microsoft then rowed back and thanked Christl for the hint.

The corona crisis has increased the pressure in the world of work and has even led to job losses for many. But high flexibility and time pressure shaped working life even before the pandemic. In 2019, 41.5 percent of those in employment had to start working earlier or quit later “at least once a month”, according to an evaluation by Statistics Austria for 2019. 40.5 percent were always or often under time pressure.

The stress level in detail: around a tenth (12.6 percent) always worked under time pressure in the past year, with another 28 percent this was often the case and with 41.3 percent sometimes. Only 18.1 percent never experienced stress. This is shown by the survey on work organization and working time organization published by Statistics Austria on Monday.

The industry with the highest proportion of employees who “always” worked under time pressure was accommodation and catering (18.2 percent). Employees in the areas of transport (17.9 percent), health and social services (17.4 percent), construction (13.6 percent) and trade (13.4 percent) were often under constant time pressure. Including those in employment who stated that they “often” work under time pressure, the proportion in accommodation and catering rises to more than half (53 percent). In this industry, the proportion of stress had already reached this level in 2015. At that time, Statistics Austria carried out a thematically similar survey.

Flexible working hours were often on the agenda. 27.1 percent of those in employment were asked to start or end work earlier “at least once a week”; 14.4 percent were asked to do so less often, but “at least once a month”.

The self-employed, at 45 percent, almost twice as often as the dependent (24.6 percent) stated that they had to stay longer or come earlier at least once a week. There were also clear differences between the occupational groups and levels of activity: Executives (51.4 percent), skilled workers in agriculture and forestry (37.3 percent) and employees in academic professions (32.8 percent) were particularly affected by overtime.

Viewed by sector, those employed in agriculture and forestry (35.5 percent) and those employed in the provision of professional and technical services (35 percent) were most frequently required to have flexible working hours. Compared to 2015, the demand for flexible working “has risen markedly, especially for self-employed people,” according to Statistics Austria.

In the other direction, the flexibility is much less – to get one to two hours off at short notice was only very easy for a good third of the employed (36.7 percent) last year, while staying away spontaneously for a day or two for just under a quarter (24, 5 percent).

There were significant differences between the self-employed and the employed: While 77.5 percent of the self-employed in 2019 could very easily take one to two hours off at short notice, this was not even possible for a third of the employed (31 percent). The self-employed were also more than twice as likely to be very easily given short-term leave for one or two days (48.6 percent) than the dependent (21.1 percent).

Clear differences were naturally evident between professions, sectors and levels of activity. In particular, workers in auxiliary and semi-skilled jobs or in the education and training, health and social services, transport and accommodation and catering sectors found it much more difficult to disconnect for a few hours or even days at short notice. According to Statistics Austria, the information provided by the employed indicates that, compared to 2015, it has not only “become significantly more difficult to spontaneously take a few hours off, but also one or two days”.

The majority of those in work are also contacted during their free time on business. In the previous year, 40.5 percent were affected “at least once in two months”. The self-employed were more likely to be contacted about their work outside of working hours (62.8 percent) than the employed (37.4 percent). This is generally more often the case for employees with a high level of activity or high formal education than for employees with a low level of activity or lower education. According to Statistics Austria, contacts made during leisure time fell overall compared to 2015, but professional contacts during leisure time intensified for self-employed people.

The results presented here on work organization and working time organization in Austria are, according to the information, data from the ad hoc module 2019 on the European labor force survey, which was carried out in Austria as part of the microcensus. The microcensus is a sample survey in households. Statistics Austria collected information on the labor market situation in Austria in randomly selected private households in standardized form. 17,669 people were interviewed as part of this module. These data were then extrapolated to the population.

After the end of the blockade by Hungary and Poland, the EU took important decisions for the future community budgets and the billions in Corona aid. As the Council of Ministers announced in Brussels on Monday, the 27 member states approved both the EU financing system and the regulations for the Corona recovery program on Monday. In addition, decisions were made on the financial framework for the coming years and the individual budget for 2021.

Image: APA (AFP)

A total of around 1.8 trillion euros should be available to the EU by the end of 2027. 750 billion euros of this are planned for corona aid.

The financial package was blocked for weeks because of a veto by Hungary and Poland. It was only possible to get it back on track with an additional declaration negotiated by the German EU Council Presidency. Hungary and Poland had feared that a new regulation to punish violations of the rule of law would aim to cut EU funds for them because of controversial political projects. The declaration has now clarified how the mechanism can be challenged in case of doubt.

The EU financial package has yet to be approved by the EU Parliament. According to the present agenda, this should happen on Wednesday. In addition, a ratification of the so-called own resources decision on the financing system is necessary in the member states. According to information from the EU Commission, national parliaments in 23 countries must also be involved.

As usual, most of the money for the next EU community budgets will come from the budgets of the member states. In addition, there will be income, for example from customs duties and a new tax on non-recycled plastic waste. The 750 billion euros for the Corona economic stimulus program, however, are to be raised in the financial markets.

Of the 312.5 billion euros in grants to be awarded via the so-called development and resilience facility, Austria could receive around 3 billion euros, according to estimates published in September. As a country particularly hard hit by the pandemic, Italy can expect 65.5 billion euros, Spain around 59 billion euros.

The new EU defense fund is to be equipped with almost eight billion euros. The German EU Council Presidency reached a corresponding provisional agreement with representatives of the European Parliament. The money will be used, for example, to support the development of drones or other modern weapon systems. Around 2.65 billion euros of the amount are earmarked for research projects and 5.3 billion euros for specific development work.

“The new European Defense Fund will strengthen the EU's ability to protect its citizens and make the EU a stronger global actor,” commented German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. It is a future-oriented instrument for intensifying research and developing common skills.

In the fight against terrorism or organized crime, however, the EU states want to be able to access encrypted communication. Responsible authorities would have to be able to get legal and targeted access to the data, according to a declaration of the 27 EU states under the heading “Security through encryption and security despite encryption” on Monday.

Technical solutions for accessing encrypted data would have to observe the principles of legality, transparency, necessity and proportionality as well as the protection of personal data. Data protection activists had expressed massive concerns in advance.

After the looting of bank lockers, the consumer protection association wants to help customers of a Mödling institute with claims for damages.

After the looting of lockers in three banks in Lower Austria and Vienna, the consumer protection association (VSV) wants to support customers of a Mödling bank with claims for damages. The bank had rejected claims made in writing by those affected for an assumption of liability with reference to a possible insurance payment, it said on Monday in a broadcast.

“Typical for banks: full-bodied advertising with 'security', but in an emergency, accept no responsibility for grossly negligent mistakes,” criticized VSV chairman Peter Kolba. Until a final judgment has been reached, he recommends that customers “avoid the unsafe self-service safes”.

According to the police, 68 depots were emptied during the attacks about a month ago. The amount of damage has reached tens of millions. The perpetrators gained entry into the financial institutions by previously manipulating the access systems.

In a concerted action, six people attacked the automatic safe systems on November 13 from 6:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. 31 lockers were emptied from a Bank Austria branch in Klosterneuburg, 29 from the Mödlinger Raiffeisen regional bank and eight from a Raiffeisen branch in Vienna-Döbling. The perpetrators had bags or rucksacks with them, with which they transported jewelery, gold, watches and cash worth millions.

The retail investor representative Wilhelm Rasinger died at the age of 72. He had been struggling with an illness for a long time. Rasinger was President of the Association for Investors (IVA) he founded in 1999, and in this position he campaigned for the rights of small shareholders in listed companies for several decades.

“With the passing of Wilhelm Rasinger, we are losing an essential voice on the Austrian capital market that was shaped by profound expertise and undisputed know-how,” said ÖBAG board member Thomas Schmid, according to a broadcast. “Through his longstanding commitment and tireless efforts, he fought fearlessly for the rights of small investors and an improvement in the shareholder culture in Austria.”

In addition to his position as IVA President, Rasinger has served on several supervisory boards of domestic companies over the years, including s Immo, voestalpine, Wienerberger and Agrana. According to Wirtschafts-Compass, he was most recently on the supervisory board of Erste Group. He also taught at the Krems University of Applied Sciences and held an honorary professorship for business administration at the Vienna University of Technology, writes the “Kurier”.

The negotiations continue

Despite the extreme time pressure, the European Union still sees opportunities for a trade pact with Great Britain from January 1st after the end of the Brexit transition period. The next few days are crucial, wrote EU negotiator Michel Barnier on Twitter on Monday. There is almost no time left for a possible treaty to be ratified by the European Parliament, among others, before the end of the year.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had agreed to continue the negotiations, although they had actually announced a decision for Sunday. The Brexit transition period ends on December 31. Then, after leaving the EU at the end of January, Great Britain will also leave the internal market and the customs union. Without an affiliation agreement, there is a risk of tariffs and trade barriers.

Von der Leyen said on Monday that one question was crucial: “And that is whether Great Britain wants smooth access to the internal market”. Great Britain is welcome: “But they either have to play by our rules, because that is a question of fairness for our companies in the internal market, or the other option is that they pay a price and the price is tariffs.”

In doing so, she was alluding to a mechanism that is supposed to ensure fair competition: if Great Britain deviates from EU standards, the EU could impose tariffs. In addition to EU fishing rights in British waters, the question is the central sticking point in the negotiations.

Despite the continuation of negotiations, Johnson said on Sunday that a no deal was still more likely than an agreement. In contrast, in briefings for the EU states and the EU Parliament on Monday, Barnier gave very cautious confidence.

“There could be a narrow path to an agreement if the negotiators clear the remaining hurdles in the next few days,” said an EU diplomat. There has been some progress in the past few days. “But – at times considerable – differences still have to be bridged,” it said.

EU diplomats told Reuters news agency that chief negotiator Barnier had shown reluctance to the prospect of an agreement behind closed doors. “The patient is still alive, but keep the undertaker's abbreviated dialing code,” said one diplomat.

The dispute over fishing rights affects France in particular. But the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire was calm on Monday in the face of a threatened hard break between Great Britain and the EU. The British have the most to lose, Le Maire said on French radio. The Brexit proponents, on the other hand, believe that Great Britain will do better economically regardless of decisions from Brussels.

The spokesman for the German government, Steffen Seibert, said in Berlin that any attempt to reach an agreement is welcome. But time is already running out.

Austria's European Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) said on Sunday evening in the ORF's discussion program “In the center”: “The longer it takes, the more likely it will be that there will be no agreement.” It is important that the 27 EU states “stick together” and “support their negotiators”, she stressed.

Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin said in Dublin on Monday that he was confident that the negotiators would still reach a trade pact in the coming days. But there are still significant hurdles: “I am hopeful, but I would like to highlight the extremely significant challenges (…)”, Martin told the broadcaster RTE. These concern competition rules and fishing: “These are very difficult questions.” The Brexit transition phase will not end until New Year's Eve, but both sides are guided by the fact that negotiation results will be needed in the next few days.

If an agreement is not reached and a trade agreement is ratified in good time, there are basically three options: a provisional application of an agreement if it comes about before the end of the year; a transition period of a few days or weeks without a contract; or a permanent coexistence without a trade agreement. Barnier campaigned for understanding on Twitter. Never before had such a comprehensive contract on trade, energy, fisheries, transport, police and judicial cooperation been negotiated so transparently and in such a short time.