Finance

The Chamber of Labor and the trade union are pleased with the changes. However, one is against the WKÖ proposal to postpone the law.

The planned legislative changes on the subject of home office have been exposed to a lot of criticism in the past few days. The limit of 42 days that one has to spend at least annually in the home office in order to be able to claim advertising costs for ergonomic furniture was strongly criticized. This has now been reduced to 26 days by the Ministry of Finance (BMF). The Chamber of Labor (AK) and the trade union (ÖGB) were pleased about the change.

“With the reduction to 26 days, the BMF has proposed a pragmatic solution that eliminates most of the problems,” said AK director Christoph Klein and the chief secretary of the ÖGB, Ingrid Reischl, according to a broadcast on Monday. The originally planned 42 days were criticized because, according to the AK and ÖGB, they would have been difficult to achieve with a planned home office day per week if one also included holidays, vacations and possible compulsory absences such as sick leave, unemployment or parental leave .

Further simplifications made

Furthermore, up to EUR 300 instead of EUR 150 can now be deducted as advertising costs in 2021, provided that the flat-rate advertising fee for 2020 has not been used or has not been used in full. It was previously planned in the draft that the amount would have to be distributed between 2020 and 2021. However, this would have led to disadvantages for purchases in 2021, according to the AK and the ÖGB.

“With the home office package, we give as much flexibility and legal security as possible. The current changes mean we are more generous and help more employees, ”said Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) in a statement about the changes.

Changes decided unanimously

The changes were decided unanimously in the Finance Committee today. “This is an important relief measure for many people who are affected by the corona pandemic in their working lives,” said ÖVP member and ÖAAB general secretary Christoph Zarits. The measures taken with the Home Office Act would bring tax relief of up to 150 million euros for employees.

AK and ÖGB speak out against the demand of the Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) to postpone the law until July. “After months of negotiations, nobody understands why this discharge should be put on the back burner again. The companies had enough time to prepare, ”said Reischl.

The economic outlook in the USA improved again in January

The economic outlook in the USA improved again in January. The composite index of the economic leading indicators rose by 0.5 percent compared to the previous month, such as the private research institute Conference Board in Washington announced. Economists had only expected an increase of 0.4 percent. In addition, the increase in December was revised upwards from 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent.

The composite index is made up of ten indicators. These include, among other things, initial applications for unemployment benefits, new orders in the industry, consumer confidence and building permits. The indicators give an idea of the state of the US economy.

In the 2019/2020 financial year, sales fell from 97 to 68.5 million euros.

Sports Direct branch.

The British sports discounter Sports Direct is still on a downward path in Austria. In the 2019/2020 financial year, which ended in the first lockdown at the end of April 2020, sales fell significantly from 97 to 68.5 million euros and the number of employees fell from 877 to 654 people.

After taxes, the company achieved a profit, but this also shrank from 1.2 million euros to around 240,000 euros.

This emerges from the recently published annual financial statements in the commercial register (“WirtschaftsCompass”). The negative equity was again around 115 million euros in 2019/20.

Company should continue to exist

Sports Direct also slimmed down the number of branches in the past financial year and closed four branches. The retailer now only has 22 branches in Austria that were once 50. Several competitors, including Intersport and XXL, have snapped up former Sport Direct branches. Sports Direct entered the Austrian market by purchasing the sports retail chains Sport Eybl and Experts.

Despite the poor development for years, the British sports retailer is sticking to its Austrian subsidiary and is constantly adding money. For example, the British have subscribed to an open-ended bond with a total nominal amount of EUR 30 million. In addition, an unconditional guarantee was given to cover the remaining negative equity of a maximum of EUR 45 million and a subordination to all other current and future creditors with regard to the outstanding liabilities from the group credit line of around EUR 40 million was declared.

“It is also confirmed that it is currently intended to maintain the support of SPORTSDIRECT.COM Austria GmbH beyond April 30, 2022,” says the annual report. In addition, in August 2020, Sport Eybl Holding GmbH brought a claim of almost 35 million euros to Sportsdirect.com Austria GmbH, “This contribution leads to an improvement in equity after the balance sheet date”, according to the company.

The company writes that it is difficult to predict further business development due to the corona pandemic. After the first lockdown, sales developed “very positively” and were 11 percent above budget in the first quarter of 2020/21 adjusted for closures. The fixed costs could have been reduced significantly through short-time working as well as rental and other operating cost reductions and thus the impact on operations was contained.

The historically high unemployment calls the opposition into action. The SPÖ calls for an employment offensive for the long-term unemployed. 40,000 people who have been without a job for a year or more should get jobs with municipalities, non-profit organizations and social enterprises that are initially fully funded by the federal government. According to the SPÖ boss, Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the jobs would range from care and support in test and vaccination streets to looking after green spaces and parks. The corona crisis exacerbates the problems on the job market, “especially where it was difficult for people to find a job on their own before the crisis,” she told journalists on Monday.

The so-called Aktion 40,000 is based on the Aktion 20,000. This employment program was introduced in 2017 under the then SPÖ Federal Chancellor, Christian Kern, and shortly thereafter discontinued by the turquoise-blue government. The 20,000 campaign was designed for the long-term unemployed over 50 years of age. The successor model presented on Monday should now include all age groups. According to the proposal, the federal government would finance the full wage and ancillary wage costs in the first year, gradually withdraw and after two years completely withdraw from the financing.

Up to 270 million euros in costs

According to SPÖ social spokesman Josef Muchitsch, this would cost 150 to 270 million euros in the first year, depending on the workload. The campaign would benefit all groups of unemployed – from young people who cannot find an apprenticeship position, over 40-year-olds with disabilities to over 50-year-olds who cannot find a job for more than twelve months.

At the end of January, almost 140,000 people were registered as long-term unemployed with the Public Employment Service (AMS), so apart from short interruptions such as training courses, they had not had a permanent job for twelve months or more.

According to an evaluation by the Prospect Institute, between July 2017 and July 2019 almost 4,000 people were employed as part of the 20,000 campaign. Before that, those affected had been unemployed for an average of 2.8 years. 42 percent of the support was women, the average age was 55 years. Around a third of those employed under the campaign were still employed three months after the funding expired.

AMS boss Johannes Kopf had been critical of the 20,000 campaign in the past – it makes more sense to spend the money on training than on state-funded jobs. (here)

Experts answer reader questions. Send your questions to [email protected], we will print the answers.

In addition to our residential building, two developers are building new apartments. The construction noise is enormous and sometimes starts at 5.15 a.m. We found out at MA 36 that this is not allowed. The burden on us is great. Are we entitled to a rent reduction? How can we defend ourselves against construction noise?

Matthias Klein: Before taking advantage of the rent reduction, you should inform the landlord in writing. It is safest for the tenant to pay the rent unchanged in full, but with the reservation that the rent reduction can be claimed. If the landlord agrees to the rent reduction, he will repay the overpaid rent. In the specific case, there is a right to a rent reduction. In addition to the tenant's right to reduce the rent, the landlord must ensure that the tenant is not disturbed in the agreed use. Either you take action against the disruptive property developer and sue them because of the immissions involved. Or you can contact your landlord and ask them to help. The prerequisite is that the noise pollution is unreasonable.

I am a tenant in a cooperative and flanked by neighbors who constantly smoke on the balcony. I only have windows on this side, so I can keep the windows closed or have to live with the stench. How can I solve the problem?

If a conversation between neighbors does not bring the desired success, you should seek an injunction against the two neighbors.

There are species-rich trees on the property of our house. The property management has started a vote on the commissioning of the tree cadastre, there was no majority. 43.41 percent of the co-owners voted in favor, 10.49 percent against and 46.09 percent did not vote. Are the latter attributable to the vote?

Resolutions by the community of owners require either unanimity or a majority, depending on the matter, with regard to all apartment owners of the property and not only with regard to the apartment owners present at the meeting. The majority or unanimity must be calculated taking into account all apartment owners and not just on the basis of the apartment owners present at the meeting. The majority is calculated according to the ratio of the co-ownership shares and not according to the number of people. Therefore, a resolution that requires a simple majority cannot be passed if all apartment owners present at a meeting vote for it, but – based on the co-ownership shares – less than half of all apartment owners attended the meeting.

The US major shareholder Starwood Capital, which wants to increase its 29.99 percent stake in CA Immo, has submitted its announced takeover offer for the office property group based in Vienna. As announced in January, the mandatory offer, which runs until April 9, is EUR 34.44 per share – less than the current price of EUR 35.70, at which CA Immo is worth EUR 3.5 billion on the stock exchange. Should the investor Aggregate Holding also compete, there is a risk of a takeover battle.

“The Bidder currently holds just under 30 percent of the voting rights in CA Immo and intends to further expand its stake,” said SOF-11 Klimt CAI Sarl, a Luxembourg investment company controlled by the Starwood Capital Group, at the weekend. Submit an anticipated mandatory offer for all CA Immo shares and convertible bonds that are not held by Starwood or by CA Immo itself. The offer price for the convertible bonds is accordingly around EUR 132,621.35 per bond with a nominal value of EUR 100,000.

The offered share price – which was already described as too low on various occasions in January – corresponds to the most recently published EPRA-NNNAV (net asset value) as well as a premium of 26.8 percent on the 6-month volume-weighted average price (VWAP) prior to the publication of the intention to offer. The premium on the unaffected closing price on December 17, 2020 is 16.9 percent, according to the Starwood company at the weekend.

Taking into account the historically low market liquidity of the CA Immo shares and the bonds, the offer represents an attractive exit option for the equity holders. In addition, the bond holders would benefit from an advantageous conversion price, which will take effect with the change of control and which will be included in the WSV- Offer price is taken into account. Both offer prices are understood to be cum dividend, so they would be reduced if a dividend is declared before settlement. The calculation of the WSV offer price is based on the assumption that the change of control will occur on April 8th of this year.

If the result is published on April 14th, then the 3-month grace period begins, as provided for in the Takeover Act. In addition, Starwood could voluntarily extend the grace period for convertible bonds (WSV), it is emphasized.

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After the announcement of the offer on January 8th with a price of EUR 34.44 per share, the CA Immo stocks listed in the Vienna Stock Exchange Oberliga ATX jumped almost 15 percent to EUR 34.40 on January 11th. The second largest shareholder after Starwood, s Immo, which is also included in the ATX, described the offer as too small: You do not think of a sale, said s-Immo boss Ernst Vejdovszky at the time: “At the currently announced offer level, we can include a delivery in the offer exclude for us, “he explained. The CA Immo investor Petrus Advisers around Klaus Umek (“nice try”) and the small investor association IVA also rated the EUR 34.44 per share (including the dividend for 2020) as too low.

It will be exciting to see whether Immoinvestor Aggregate Holding – a Luxembourg company owned by Austrian investor Günther Walcher – will actually step into the ring. On January 20, Aggregate announced that they were considering a counter offer to Starwood. This lifted the CA Immo title to an eleven-month high of 37.90 euros. Currently, on Monday noon, the price was 35.70 euros.

The creditors of Commerzialbank Mattersburg (Cb) approved the public liability suit drawn up by the trustee against the Republic of Austria on Monday. The action is to be brought before the competent regional court for civil law matters in Vienna today. The claim for damages amounts to around 303 million euros, but the chances that the creditors will see their money again are slim.

The law firm Kosch & Partner, who are the cb’s bank administrators, sees a “collective failure” of the responsible supervisory bodies, i.e. the Financial Market Authority (FMA), the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) and the Ministry of Finance, it said in a broadcast on Monday. The Public Prosecutor's Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA) and the Eisenstadt public prosecutor's office have not fulfilled their investigative obligations either.

In November, the trustee asked the republic to pay the 303 million euros, but the republic refused on February 8th. As a result, Kosch & Partner is now suing the republic for exactly 303,069,717 euros and 11 cents. The creditors' committee approved the lawsuit today.

However, the chances that the creditors will get the money are slim, even if the lawsuit were successful. This is because the deposit protection requirement of around 470 million euros must be met, but from today's perspective only part of the requirement should be replaced even here.

According to the broadcast, the lawyers devoted a total of 57 pages to the misconduct of the testing and investigative bodies. Among other things, they criticize the fact that for 13 years – from 2002 to 2015 – there was no on-site inspection by the supervisors at the Cb. Otherwise, the monitoring of the bank was not sufficient.

In addition, the supervisors should have noticed the (fictitious) high deposits of Cb at other domestic banks, as these were not reported by other banks, is another allegation. “A simple comparison of this data would have revealed the malversations at Commerzialbank Mattersburg immediately.”

Defects discovered in 2015

In the opinion of the trustees of the estate, the deficiencies and legislative proposals discovered in 2015 during the examination of the bank should have been reacted to more severely, at least with the dismissal of the board of directors and the summoning of a government commissioner. The only consequence at that time, however, was the demand for “improvements”.

The lawyers criticize that the whistleblower report to the FMA and the WKStA from 2015 was largely inconsequential. “Instead of taking the indicated steps and independent investigative steps, the allegations described in detail in the whistleblower report were incomprehensibly not pursued independently and ultimately discontinued prematurely in an unjustifiable, illegal and culpable manner,” is quoted from the claim of the trustee.

It was also announced that the state of Burgenland would bring a claim against Energie Burgenland and the regional management (RMB). According to information from the APA, this should already be available, but has not yet been introduced. On the part of the SPÖ Burgenland it was said that the last two committee days will be awaited. “We urge that the announced official liability lawsuits against the republic are then initiated. You can assume that there will be some,” said country manager Roland Fürst on Monday on the sidelines of a press conference.

Let's start with a simple sounding question: What are prisons for? In other words, what are the goals of the prison system? According to the European Court of Human Rights, “punishment is still one of the main purposes of the prison system, but the focus in European criminal proceedings is now on rehabilitation.” to rehabilitate. But how well does it work in practice? It is crucial to evaluate the effectiveness of prison sentences in deterring criminal behavior and promoting the reintegration of inmates into social life.

Scientists disagree about how imprisonment affects inmate behavior. Some argue that the prospect or experience of imprisonment discourages crime. In support of this view, recent evidence from Norway suggests that time spent in prison has a preventive effect on subsequent criminal activity and relapse.

A second approach goes in the opposite direction, claiming that prisons, given the psychologically destructive and inhuman conditions, encourage crime. Additionally, low-risk offenders could develop an increased propensity for violations from dealing with criminal networks in prison.

In addition, it is often claimed that the social behavior of convicted criminals is so fundamentally different from the rest of society that rehabilitation attempts are unpromising. Research studies with data from Norway, Germany, the USA and Italy have shown, however, that differences in altruism and willingness to cooperate between prison inmates and other population groups are either relatively small or nonexistent. All of this gives reason for optimism: under the right conditions, a well-targeted and well-functioning prison system can help limit the loss of human capital resulting from incarceration.

Economic experiment in prison

In a study published in 2020, we too dealt with questions relating to the prison system. With the help of a sample of 105 inmates in two penal institutions in Greece, we carried out an economic experiment that measures various aspects of social orientation. In addition, the test subjects either interacted with another inmate or with someone from outside the prison. This allowed us to determine to what extent the imprisonment leads to a so-called “ingroup bias”, ie to the tendency that one is or becomes less well-disposed towards the broader society.

The most important results of our study can be summarized as follows: First, we unfortunately had to find out that a longer period of detention leads on average to a weakening of prosocial behavior. On average, inmates become less altruistic, show less trust and are less willing to cooperate, especially when interacting with people outside the prison. Second, we performed a simple cognitive intervention and examined its effectiveness. The results here were very positive: those inmates who had to write a short text about their time in prison and the influence of the term on their behavior made significantly more social decisions in the subsequent experiment than those who did not write such a text.

Our results show that the prosocial behavior of inmates can be promoted with suitable instruments and interventions. Various instruments of a similar nature have been evaluated over the years and in many countries, such as criminal accountability programs, cognitive behavioral interventions or therapeutic measures, or even the appropriate design of prison architecture. Although not all interventions have achieved the desired goals, they have often led to a strengthening of the prosocial orientation and a reduction in relapse rates among the participants.

Conclusion

The results summarized here can inform decision-makers in the area of the penal system and, above all, support them in the development and fine-tuning of a system that focuses on the rehabilitation of prisoners and sets the course for prosocial behavior. Such an evidence-based approach can offer essential advantages, not only for the actors in prisons (inmates, guards, administration), but also for the judiciary and the general public.

After an engine fire, Boeing calls on all airlines to take the affected model 777 with certain propulsion nozzles out of service for the time being. At the weekend, a United Airlines type 777-200 had to land unplanned at Denver Airport because the right engine caught fire and debris fell on the ground.

The US Air Traffic Control Authority (FAA) immediately announced that all Boeing 777s powered by Pratt & Whitney's PW4000 engines would be airworthy. The US supervision has been more consistent since two crashes of the younger Boeing model 737 MAX with many deaths.

United Airlines announced that it would take its 24 affected active machines out of service pending the investigation. The 26-year-old Boeing 777-200 with 231 passengers and ten crew members was on its way to Honolulu when an engine went up in flames. Nobody was hurt. United is the only American airline that uses the aircraft type. According to the US authorities, other operators are in Japan and South Korea. Boeing announced that there were 69 such machines in use. Another 59 are already on the ground due to the corona crisis.

Inspection intervals should be increased

An initial check of the engine failure showed “that the inspection intervals for the hollow fan blades should be increased, which are unique to this engine model and are only installed on the 777,” explained FAA boss Steve Dickson. Two fan blades were broken and panels had come off The affected jets 777-200 and 777-300 are older models that have already been retired from many airlines. The Japanese Ministry of Transport instructed Japan Airlines (JAL) and Lufthansa partner ANA to remove their 13 and 19 aircraft, respectively According to the ministry, a 777 from JAL had to turn around at the beginning of December due to problems with the left engine, in which case the fan blades were also broken.

The supervisory authority in South Korea was waiting for a recommendation from the FAA. However, Korean Air Lines said its six planes currently in use remained on the ground, and ten more have already been temporarily shut down. Asiana Airlines has nine planes and has stated that it will still discuss the consequences with Boeing and the authorities.

Of the more than 1,600 Boeing 777s built to date, less than ten percent are equipped with the affected engine type. The Lufthansa Group, to which the Austrian AUA belongs, also has 777 planes. As “Aerotelegraph” reports, none of them are equipped with the affected PW engines.

At the moment, the local supermarkets close at 7 p.m. due to the corona. But the big chains want to go back to the old regulation.

There is still a tattoo in Austria at 8:00 p.m. – the night curfew also comes into force in the now valid “Lockdown light”. To ensure that everyone arrives home on time, the supermarkets also close their shop doors at 7 p.m. – as reported several times. The big players Spar and Rewe dared to venture last week: They want to go back to the old business hours. At present, working people in particular are running out of time, so the argument goes. In addition, it was said, it would be “a step towards normalcy for the population and would also straighten out customer flows. That would be helpful in terms of reducing contact.”

Against the background that many are currently working in the home office and structured their day differently, the union only spoke out on the weekend in favor of maintaining the limited shopping hours, and then clarified on Sunday via ORF: “The union only wants the opening times so long know implemented until 7 p.m., as long as exit restrictions apply, “said a spokesman.

But that doesn't go far enough for the trade association. As “Today” learned on Monday, they want to go back to the old regulation sooner. “At the latest when there are the next steps in opening, it has to be so far,” said Rainer Will from the trade association in consultation with the major chains.

Will explained that the square meter regulation (20 square meters per customer) halved the number of customers who can shop at the same time. “In order to equalize the flow of customers, an extension of the opening times would make sense now, also from an epidemiological point of view”, the chairman of the trade association told “Today” . At the latest when the gastronomy opens again, a further increase in frequency is imminent, to which one has to react.

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