In addition, a wage increase for 2025 has already been agreed. From May 2025, employees will receive the annual inflation of 2024 plus one percent. In addition, the vida union and the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) agreed on a minimum wage of 2,000 euros gross from May 1, 2025, as they announced in a press conference.
12 free Sundays per year
There are also innovations in the framework collective agreement for this Hotel– and hospitality industry. Among other things, the agreement stipulated that employees would have at least 12 Sundays off per year. In addition, the night work supplement will in future apply to all employees who continue to work after midnight and no longer, as was previously the case, only to employees in the hotel and night catering industries. Holiday and Christmas bonuses will in future be regulated uniformly in all federal states and the waiting period for entitlement to them will be shortened from two months to one month. In the future, the anniversary money can also be used in your free time.
Improvements for apprentices
There are a number of improvements for apprentices. From May 1, 2024, apprentices will receive an apprenticeship income of 1,000 euros per month in the first year of training, 1,120 euros in the second, 1,320 euros in the third and 1,420 euros in the fourth. In addition, apprentices get the first eight Sundays off during their apprenticeship to make the transition into the world of work easier. There is a bonus of 250 or 200 euros for a final apprenticeship examination with excellent or good results. In the future, fully trained apprentices will immediately be placed in the wage group for skilled workers with higher pay.
9,000 vacancies in tourism
The new wage agreement is intended to make work in the hotel and catering industry, where staff are desperately needed, more attractive again and encourage more people to enter the industry. At the end of March this year, almost 9,000 vacancies in tourism were registered with the Employment Service (AMS). However, the number of unreported vacancies is likely to be around twice as high.
“It must be our common goal that we do not have to bring people from third countries, but rather that we use the domestic labor market,” said vida division manager Berend Tusch at the press conference on Tuesday. “I hope that we can attract some of the 30,000 people who are looking for work in tourism because we have made the wage and general conditions attractive.” This was also confirmed by WKÖ catering chairman Mario Pulker and WKÖ hotel industry chairman Johann Spreitzhofer, who see the new wage agreement as a signal to get more people interested in the industry.
Calculation periods extended
The improvements from the employer’s perspective include extending the calculation period for part-time employees, which makes it easier to compensate for overtime without additional pay. A calculation period of up to 26 weeks can now be agreed for part-time employees and up to 9 months for employees with fixed-term contracts.
The extension of fixed-term employment contracts should also be made more flexible in the future. Fixed-term contracts can be extended once by up to four weeks and without interrupting the calculation period up to a maximum of 9 months. The first month of the employment relationship will in future be considered a trial month for all employees; an individual contractual agreement is no longer necessary.
The new framework collective agreement and the conclusion of the collective agreement apply to around 76,000 companies and around 240,000 employees. According to the WKÖ, 6,460 apprentices are currently completing apprenticeships in the hospitality industry.
