According to the Chamber of Labor (AK), people with non-Austrian citizenship already make up a fifth of all workers in the country, and often even more in systemically relevant professions. But they are often disadvantaged, criticized President Renate Anderl on Thursday. In a press conference, she called for fairer access to citizenship and thus to the right to vote. There must also be simplifications in the recognition of foreign educational qualifications.
The AK has substantiated its demands with a SORA study. According to this, employees with foreign citizenship are younger, more often have a university degree (but less often a high school diploma), are more likely to work as manual workers or freelancers and often work in systemically important sectors such as cleaning, care, food retail or delivery services. Their employment relationships are more precarious, job insecurity is greater, the stress is higher and internal esteem is lower. Discrimination and lower pay are also commonplace.
“We were and always have been a country of immigration,” emphasized Anderl: “I am very proud to live in a country where diversity is lived. Exactly this mentioned diversity also needs rights, here a lot is in trouble.” the IFThe President described it as unfair that it had become increasingly difficult to obtain citizenship and thus the right to vote. “The voice of the employees no longer has the weight that they are actually entitled to in the National Council and the state parliaments,” she criticized. When asked, she did not want to comment on the fact that her SPÖ once supported tightening of citizenship law.
She also called for the recognition and nostrification procedures for educational qualifications brought with them to be simplified, shortened and made more cost-effective. In-house wage transparency is needed, and employers should be obliged to pay twice as much if overtime and overtime are systematically withheld.
