Katzian
Trade union leader Wolfgang Katzian criticizes the fact that in the corona pandemic more money flowed to the economy than to the employees.
ÖGB President Wolfgang Katzian criticized the very unequal distribution of Corona funding in the ORF “Pressestunde” and calls for an increase in unemployment benefits from 55 to 70 percent net replacement rate in order to get people through the crisis.
“It pisses me off when people always say that there is no incentive. We currently have 500,000 unemployed and 50,000 vacancies, so someone should discuss the incentive with me,” rumbles Katzian. Even if job seekers are motivated to the point of their fingertips and are all professors, there are currently no jobs. “There are many standing in front of the ruins of their existence and when we say like a mantra that we need higher unemployment benefits, then we do not do it to annoy someone, but rather the survival of a large number of people”.
According to the ÖGB boss, short-time work will also be necessary in the second half of the year, after all, it is also much cheaper than unemployment benefits. To overcome the financial crisis, Katzian wants to ask the “winners of the pandemic”, the large digital corporations and the wealthy to pay: “Hopefully nobody will believe that we can overcome these great challenges by taking something away from the unemployed or by ruining the welfare state”.
The union boss did not want to judge whether the lockdown should be loosened further: “I will be careful not to do the work of the virologists. If the virological situation allows, I want it to be unlocked, but I will not have any requirements or demands do.” Katzian is dissatisfied with the speed of the vaccinations – “much too slow” – which he blames partly on the government and partly on the EU.
