This committee is intended to develop a task and offer reform, a structural and organizational reform, an electoral law reform, a transparency offensive and a financing reform and to regularly consult with the expanded WKO presidium. An interim report was announced for the first half of 2026.
“From today we are starting a new chapter in the Chamber of Commerce,” announced Schultz, who referred to her entrepreneurial activities in Tyrol, according to the text of the speech. And further: “We will have to change a lot if we want to regain credibility and trust: among our members in companies, among politicians and among the population.”
Despite “good work in the past,” there is “no reason for complacency,” said Schultz. “Our public image is tattered. We are portrayed as a bloated bureaucratic apparatus with too many officials, with too much income and too little efficiency. We have to correct this image because it does not do us justice in this harsh way.”
“Key role for basic democratic consensus”
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In this context, the interim leader also highlighted the WKO’s services for its compulsory members, which were good and important. Schultz also highlighted successful lobbying work such as the reduction in corporate income tax (KÖSt) to 23 percent, among other points such as the exemption from the standard consumption tax (NOVA) for light commercial vehicles and the acceleration of major proceedings.
Regarding social partnership, which also received a certain spotlight because of the WKO crisis, Schultz said that the Chamber of Commerce was “the core”. “We feel responsible for cohesion and balancing interests. We have a key role in the functioning of our basic democratic consensus.” Companies ensured prosperity in the country.
Plea for compulsory membership
Schultz defended compulsory membership. To all those who wanted to undermine this, she said: “I am fighting for our independence and against government interference in our agendas. We are only strong if all companies contribute.” The WKO should not allow itself to be irritated by party polemics; the line is “objectivity and reason within the framework of social partnership”.
Despite the joint proposal, the Freedom Economy (FW) did not want to fully believe in the reform; it submitted an urgent proposal against compulsory membership. Only without this can there be reforms. UNOS and the Green Economy also submitted an urgent motion: Chamber levy 2 should be abolished and companies should be relieved.
However, the ÖVP Economic Association has an absolute majority in the Chamber of Commerce. Like the Economic Association, the Social Democratic Economic Association also saw no urgency. The emergency motions also received criticism because there was a joint all-party motion that should not be torpedoed in advance, a representative of the business association said.
Call for “more punch in government”
In her speech, Schultz also addressed the government: In order to take advantage of the opportunities, decisive action must now be taken. What is needed is “more punch, more courage and more bigger thinking in the government”. Working through the government program as conflict-free as possible is not enough; larger solutions are needed for the big issues. New tax ideas are not an approach.
Schultz: WKO image is “battered”.
WKO Vice President Martha Schultz gave her first speech in her new role as WKO interim leader at the meeting of the Economic Parliament. She said she didn’t want “a revolution, but a reform,” and admitted that the WKO’s image was “battered.”
The WKO is also responsible, said Schultz. “The Chamber of Commerce wants and must play a decisive role in reversing the trend towards a dynamic economic recovery. It is up to us to make the positive reports that put us in a spirit of optimism again clearly audible: about the innovations that are taking place in our companies, the successes of our companies abroad, the achievements of our apprentices.”
“Start with ourselves”
“That’s why we have to start with ourselves,” said the Chamber’s task, said the WKO boss. The first step was to suspend the increase in functional compensation, initially pending the results of an external audit. In addition, salaries for 2026 would not increase by 4.2, but by 2.1 percent. A new model will be developed for salary negotiations in 2027.
For the WKO, the new path means: “We will question whether everything that has ever been invented is still necessary. We look: Where can it be done faster and where can it be less bureaucratic? We are going through the structures with the aim of becoming more modern, more efficient and more cost-effective. We will pass on the financial scope we create here to our members,” said Schultz.
Reform package “we will follow through”
“The same applies to all areas of double and multiple tracks,” said Schultz in the direction of the nine state chambers. The reform steps will also be based on the results of the announced audit by the Court of Auditors, which is scheduled to begin in December. “We will see through the reform package,” said Schultz.
Like her predecessor Mahrer, she also wants to “tell what we really do for our members”. According to the interim boss, this has not always reached all 590,000 member companies. A permanent appointment for the chair of the ÖVP Economic Association and the WKO is not in sight for the time being.
ÖGB President Wolfgang Katzian described Schultz in a broadcast as “a self-confessed social partner”. And further: “The workers in this country need security and confidence. That is what social partnership is all about, which is an important stability factor, especially in times of multiple crises.”
