Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Austria (Ratification: 1972)

The Committee notes the replies to its previous direct request and the Government’s report for the period ending in May 2005, which includes the 2004 Progress Report on the National Plan for Employment for Austria.

1. Employment trends and active labour market measures. The Government indicates in its 2004 Progress Report on the National Action Plan for Employment that Austria has aligned itself with the employment policy goals agreed upon by EU Member States. The Government is resolved to meet the EU goals through a package of measures and is determined to raise the employment rate to the EU target of 70 per cent, the female employment rate to 60 per cent and the employment rate for persons aged 55-64 to 50 per cent. Supplemented by the data published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Committee further notes that, in 2004, the unemployment rate stood at 4.5 per cent, while the overall employment rate stood at 68 per cent, thus well on the way to meeting the EU quantitative goal of 70 per cent by 2010. The employment rate for women was 61 per cent in 2004, already exceeding the EU target level. The Government indicates in its report that the main challenge remains to promote employment among older workers. Although their employment rate has risen in recent years, the labour force participation rate for those aged 55-64 stood at only 30.4 per cent in 2003. Among the measures the Government intends to promote in order to encourage older workers to remain in the labour force, those include, inter alia, reform of partial retirement, introduction of transitional retirement pay and further education initiatives for older workers.

2. The Government’s Progress Report for 2004 also describes its active labour market measures, which include, inter alia, preventive measures for unemployed workers to facilitate their transition into the world of work, effective integration of the unemployed and regular reviewing and evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of labour market programmes, special programmes for youth (creation of 9,000 positions for unemployed young people), reform of the Public Employment Service (AMS) and new acceptability criteria for positions offered by the AMS, continuation of the Disability Billion, a federal employment initiative to integrate people with disabilities into the labour market. The Committee looks forward to receive from the Government in its next report an assessment of the impact of its active labour market measures, including information on the extent to which these measures have been successful in achieving its objectives of increasing the participation of older workers in the labour market. The Committee also wishes to express its interest in information on how measures taken to promote employment operate within a "framework of a coordinated economic and social policy". It would appreciate if the Government could indicate how the key elements of monetary and fiscal policies contribute to the employment objectives (Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention).

3. Participation of the social partners. Referring to its previous request, the Committee would be grateful if the Government could provide, in its next report, information on the manner in which representatives of groups concerned are consulted with regard to employment policies, by stating the issues placed before them (Article 3).