Union icon Karl Dürtscher died - Austria mourns!

Union icon Karl Dürtscher died - Austria mourns!

The death of Karl "Charly" Dürtscher, the federal manager and chief negotiator of the GPA union, shaked the Austrian union landscape. Dürtscher died on Sunday after a serious illness, which triggered great grief from his colleagues and friends. Barbara Teiber, the chairwoman of the GPA, praised him as a dear friend, experienced colleague and upright trade unionists, who decisively shaped the working life in Austria. Dürtscher has been working in the GPA since 1985 and took on the role of the managing director in 2018. Among other things, he was responsible for over 170 collective contracts and had a significant contribution to the development of collective agreement policy.

The importance of Dürtschers for the collective contracts in Austria can hardly be overestimated. During his career, he was significantly involved in the negotiations on Corona short-time work, which has played a central role in working life in recent years. He often appeared as a partner of Reinhold Binder (Pro-Ge) and tirelessly campaigned for the interests of the employees. His commitment was not limited to the GPA; He also paused positions in the self -administration of social security. His offices included the deputy chairman of the Vienna area health insurance and the presidium member of the pension insurance institution.

Dürtscher's legacy in the trade union movement

collective contracts represent one of the most important achievements of the trade union movement in Austria. They are negotiated by advocacy groups in order to achieve better income and working conditions. The first collective contracts were concluded in the second half of the 19th century, and a lot has happened since then. Dürtscher played an important role in this development by significantly progressing the GPA collective agreement.

The 1947 collective agreement law was a milestone, since it lifted the Reich Rights in effect on collective agreements and thus created the legal framework for collective contracts. Currently, around 450 collective contracts, 30 homeland tariffs and numerous minimum wage tariffs are concluded annually, which illustrates the ongoing relevance of these contracts for the Austrian world of work. Dürtscher's contribution to this development will be estimated for a long time.

In his work as a chamber council in the Chamber of Labor, Dürtscher showed his commitment to fair and fair working conditions. His loss is not only mourned by the members of the GPA, but by numerous people in the entire population.