Barbara Teiber remains chairwoman of the GPA, the largest single union in the ÖGB. In her online freestyle she received 96.1 percent of the delegate votes with a high participation of 89.6 percent. In the APA interview, she calls for the financial consequences of the corona crisis to be borne by the wealthy, for example through a millionaire tax and an expanded digital tax. The topic of reducing working hours also remains on the agenda for them.
It was Teiber's first choice, despite having headed the private employees' union for nearly 2.5 years. At that time she took over from Wolfgang Katzian, who rose to the position of ÖGB president in the middle of his term of office. Her first freestyle by the delegates took place only now. Because of the Corona regulations, the so-called federal forum was divided. This week only the committees were elected, they will meet in person in Vienna in July. A name change that brings a return to GPA was also adopted. The merger partner djp, the former printing union, disappears from the name. 96.6 percent of the delegates were in favor.
Demand for a reduction in working hours
Teiber sees her term of office so far under “very turbulent” conditions such as the turquoise-blue government and the corona pandemic quite positively. For example, it has been possible to prevent the accident insurance company (AUVA) from being broken up and to implement a reduction in working hours in some collective agreements.
At the moment it is primarily a matter of fighting the growing unemployment caused by Corona. Teiber relies heavily on short-time work, insisting on compliance with the rules, according to which, in return, no employees may be put on the street. In any case, the GPA boss sees a certain “over-funding” in the compensation for the companies. Therefore, they would have to be forced to keep the employees.
But Teiber also wants to start with partial retirement, which is to be made more attractive for some cohorts. The GPA boss is also relying on greater flexibility in the inherently rigid model. A four-day week should be possible.
Overall, the GPA chairman appears to be the order of the day. The Chamber of Commerce asks them to remove “ideological blinders”. Teiber also prefers shorter work to an unconditional basic income, as suggested recently by the Tyrolean Greens. “I'm really rather skeptical about that,” says the GPA boss, pointing out that for many people work is also an anchor in life.
The home office takes a differentiated look at Teiber. In the corona crisis, it is “totally right and important” for them that many companies enable this way of working. However, she rejects coercion. She also sees the danger that companies could come up with the idea of outsourcing work, for example in the administrative area, across borders. In addition, working at home can lead to loneliness.
Ergonomic office armchairs for employees in the home office
In any case, however, she advocates that resources are made available to employees in an unbureaucratic manner, for example for the replacement of energy costs or for ergonomic office chairs. However, she also rejects over-funding, as employees who would have to work away from home in retail or nursing, for example, feel repeatedly disadvantaged.
Last but not least, there is the difficulty for the works councils when working from home that they have to carry out their work without direct contact with their colleagues. This is “of course a challenge”. You have to think about how you can still keep in touch with the employees or how you can make a works meeting digitally exciting.
For Teiber it is clear that in the end the welfare state cannot pay the costs of the crisis. The exploding deficit must be compensated by the right people. In doing so, she insists on a real digital tax. After all, Amazon is the ultimate winner of the pandemic and hardly pays any taxes. The demands for millionaire tax and inheritance tax also remain current.
At least currently, Teiber has ticked off the future laboratory, which she led at the request of SPÖ boss Pamela Rendi-Wagner. At the beginning, inputs were given to put the issue of social justice more in the foreground. Since Corona, work has more or less come to a standstill and nothing will change in the near future. In any case, the numbers at the SPÖ were pointing up again and they would certainly not take part in a personnel debate.
