2023-09-26 10:41:09
Appeal to the union: “As quickly as possible, social partnership negotiations on the framework law in order to secure title and media diversity as well as employment”
Vienna (OTS) – The board of the Association of Austrian Newspapers (VÖZ) has unanimously decided to exercise its right as a collective bargaining party on the employers’ side, as agreed in the social partnership, and to terminate the collective agreement for editors and the general agreement for permanent freelancers with effect from the end of 2023 .
However, in the termination letter to the union, the board of the publishers’ association offers the GPA union, as a representative of the employees, a binding offer to extend the term in full from the employer’s perspective until June 30, 2024 in order to enable appropriate negotiations to redesign the KV. This means that initially nothing changes for the individual employee.
“For more than 20 years, media of publishing origin have been confronted with a dramatic change in the market environment due to digital transformation. Due to the increasing switch to digital newspapering, we are, on the one hand, in a direct competitive situation with international digital platforms such as Google, Meta and Co. On the other hand, the free digital offer of the public broadcaster, which will in future be financed by contributions with around 810 million euros, makes it more difficult to transform advertising revenue “, says VÖZ President Markus Mair.
Maintaining media diversity: KV must be adapted to prevailing circumstances
At the same time, it is important to cope with massive cost increases in all areas of the company, which would put additional strain on media companies with publishing origins due to falling overall sales. As a result of the digital transformation, we are also faced with an essential change in the structure and workflow of work processes in the editorial offices: These must be quickly and sustainably converted from their focus on the production of print products to the creation of content for all channels. The collective agreement in its current form does not reflect these realities.
In order to maintain press diversity in Austria, the collective agreement needs to be reformed so that it meets the requirements of today’s global, digital media market in the future and enables media companies with publishing origins to achieve progressive digital transformation. “Our common social partnership goal must be to design the framework agreement in such a way that, on the one hand, the continued existence of the company and thereby the diversity of media, titles and opinions in Austria are sufficiently secured, and on the other hand, the largest possible number of employees can be retained in the industry.” , emphasizes VÖZ managing director Grünberger. “We therefore suggest that the union immediately enter into serious negotiations on the framework law, which also includes collective bargaining, in order to achieve this committed goal by June 30 next year.”
Questions & Contact:
Association of Austrian Newspapers (VÖZ)
Michaela Reisinger, BA
Head of press and public relations
+43 664 33 29 411
michaela.reisinger@all-media.at
1695724950
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