Suche
Mein Konto
Vienna police facing overtime cuts: a savings package is imminent!
Austria's police are cutting overtime in Vienna due to financial bottlenecks. Savings also affect other state police departments.
Vienna police facing overtime cuts: a savings package is imminent!
Austria's police are facing drastic financial cuts. Due to a strained federal budget, the Ministry of the Interior has to implement a series of cost-cutting measures, particularly affecting the overtime of police officers in Vienna. According to internal documents available to the APA, flat-rate overtime will be reduced by 30 percent and individual overtime hours will be reduced by 20 percent. This represents a massive intervention that also affects other state police departments. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) mentioned that these savings are described as “normal temporary precautionary measures”, while the police fear that this could be the beginning of a larger wave of savings, like Cosmo reported.
Austria's financial difficulties, which are driving the deficit above the EU's Maastricht limit of three percent of GDP, require all ministries to reduce material expenditure by 15 percent. According to the Interior Ministry, however, it is emphasized that the “police service as a whole” should remain unaffected by the cuts in order not to endanger security. However, critics such as Walter Strallhofer from the FSG warn that service operations are at great risk. Due to overtime regulations, a twelve-hour Sunday shift now requires two officers instead of one, further exacerbating the situation oe24 noted.
In Vienna, all overtime on Sundays and public holidays is also subject to drake, and rewards for outstanding performance are suspended. The measures are justified by a provisional budget that has been in effect since January and has highlighted the need for a federal budget that is still outstanding. The Ministry of the Interior plans to evaluate the measures and, if necessary, withdraw them after a new budget comes into force. The situation remains tense, while concerns about the continued lack of action in police work are becoming ever louder, as the security forces are already reaching their limits.