Negotiations on a new collective agreement for the approximately 130,000 employees in the private health, social and care sectors have been going on since October. After the failure of the third round of negotiations, the employers carried out the previously announced strike threat in December. There was also a strike after the failure of the fourth round of negotiations in mid-December.
Negotiations will take place again this Monday. Without an agreement, the GPA union has already made it clear, there will be another strike immediately. Then “extensive strikes” would take place across Austria from January 28th to 30th. At an Austria-wide conference of around 500 works councils in Graz last Wednesday, the positions were made clear once again: The employees’ wish was not only a four percent wage increase but also an improvement in working conditions, especially for part-time workers.
“Combat power in the companies remains high”
The wording of a resolution adopted by the works councils states: “If the collective agreement negotiations are not successfully concluded on January 26th, 2026, the employees will implement coordinated strikes and industrial action in the companies on January 28th to 30th, 2026, with the aim of concluding a fair collective agreement!” The negotiating team was “strengthened” by the works councils. The “fighting power in the companies” is “remaining high”, the employees are “ready to strike” and “the demands of the GPA and vida unions will be emphasized if a solution is not possible on January 26th”.
The last offer from the employer side stipulated that collectively agreed wages and salaries would rise by 2.3 percent from April 1, 2026. For the full year 2026, this would correspond to an increase of 1.72 percent (since no increase would be planned for the first three months). The unions rejected this offer as “inadequate”.
The employer side understands the employees’ request in principle and, according to their own statements, would be happy to comply with this, but points to the poor external circumstances. “It’s not about what we want, but what we can do,” said Social Economy Austria managing director and chief negotiator Yvonne Hochsteiner in December. You have to concentrate on securing facilities; there will be no other way than for the employees to “take a big step towards us,” she emphasized at the time.
The chairman of the SWÖ, Erich Fenninger, recently emphasized politics in an interview with the Kleine Zeitung: “We understand that we have to get the budgets under control. What is troubling us now is the fact that the state budgets for 2026 had essentially already been decided when our collective agreement negotiations started, and we simply cannot offer our own claim to compensate for the inflation rate. That cannot be financed.”
