#paidcooperation #newworkingenvironments #futureofwork

Last Wednesday, kununu brought together key stakeholders from the world of work, including politicians, business leaders, companies and employees, at its „kununu Townhall“ event, where they discussed the challenges and solutions for a modern working environments.

In this new event format, politicians answered questions on key topics such as work/business, integration/migration, education/training, digitalisation/transparency and equality/diversity. It sounded exciting, and it was!

kununu Townhall: My impressions

I had the pleasure of attending this event and took away the following:

Maintaining prosperity

The main topic of the evening how to maintain prosperity – which was hotly debated by the attendees. Everyone agreed that change is necessary!

However, theye were divided on whether this could be achieved by reducing non-wage labour costs. As our social system is financed by these costs, this option would only be possible if appropriate alternative counter-financing could be found.

The discussion about full-time vs. part-time, associated childcare and the gender pay gap also caused a stir. Paying a full-time bonus would be short-sighted and would further increase the gender pay gap.

Education

Education was the second major topic and is high on the agenda for all parties.

However, everyone has a different perspective on it – the discussion ranged from promoting digital skills  such as programming in adult education centres to the including Austrians living abroad and their educational opportunities in order to counteract the shortage of skilled workers.

A major obstacle to further education appears to be the lack of alternatives to theoretical education for people who require further training later in their professional lives.

Equality

The concept of equality and its implications remain controversial today.

The concept of flexibility in the workplace, which could greatly promote equality, is often mistakely equated with working from home. In reality, it is more about a culture of trust between employers and employees. Working hours are still equated with presence rather than actual performance.

The Working Hours Act dates back to the post-war eara and was designed to protect industrial workers and those in physically demanding occupations. Therefore, the Working Hours Act should therefore be adapted for specific sectors.

Unfortunately, the results of Austria’s largest employee survey and the subsequent discussion received far too little attention. Anyone interested in seeing the study results should stay tuned. kununu will soon send out a press release.

 A recording of the event is available here for those who were unable to attend.