younion: Union offers full protection for ORF employees!

2023-04-26 18:04:34

Intervention in existing collective agreements is a no-go!

Vienna (OTS) – Media Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP) and Greens club boss Sigrid Maurer presented the draft for the new ORF law in a press conference. Above all, Raab went into the supposed “privileges” in the ORF. She spoke of massive savings.

“I have no idea where the minister sees the many ‘privileges’ she wants to save millions by removing. What she actually intends to do is intervene in existing collective agreements. And that’s a red line that mustn’t be crossed,” says Werner Ertl from the Electronic Media section of younion _ Die Daseinsgewerkschaft.

Ertl promises all union members in the ORF full protection: “We will have the draft checked very carefully by our lawyers. Should injustice actually become the law, we will fight with all our means. Because once the legislature begins to intervene in collective agreements, nobody is safe anymore.”

For younion chairman Christian Meidlinger, the Raab statements on the subject of transparency are a mockery: “If transparency is so important to the minister, then she should start with it in her party. The public prosecutor would be very happy if everything would be put on the table, because then they could save themselves years of research.”

Gerhard Berti, chairman of the main group VIII in the younion _ Die Daseinsgwerkschaft, sees the freezing of the ORF contribution in the next three years as a major problem: “Even this year, the employees* with only a small wage increase will have a large contribution to the ORF done. Does the minister really believe that this will continue to be the case in the coming years? That’s completely delusional! The ORF is also feeling the full impact of the staff shortage. We also have to become more attractive in terms of salary so that operations can be maintained.”

Christian Meidlinger concludes: “The new ORF law is just another example of how dubious this government works. Since more and better program for less money is promised. You’re not serious, are you? Whereby she also promised us a ‘patient billion’ when the health insurance funds were merged. But maybe the ORF’s saving from destruction is also fully intentional. Because what this federal government does not want at all is independent journalism that does not sell itself for a U so that it then writes an X.”