5 ms·

All true, but it might be worth mentioning that most of those benefits are still Austrian law, not European law. So while they generally better than the US, oth

by phaer 4y ago

All true, but it might be worth mentioning that most of those benefits are still Austrian law, not European law. So while they generally better than the US, other EU states might lack some of those law.

Symbiote 4y ago
Many countries go further, but the EU does require a minimum. - 4 weeks paid holiday - 4 months unpaid parental leave, 14 weeks paid for the mother https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_labour_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_labour_law is the best overview I can find.
- sebazzz 4y ago
  I got indeed 20 by law and 14 on top of that for a total of 34, but the latter is the exception. In IT 26-28 days are common.
- warent 4y ago
  For what it's worth I'm pretty sure there are systems in place in these countries which actually make it possible. right? Like, there are insurances and government assistance programs that businesses use to pay for things like parental leave. US businesses get no such help. So what is often attributed to US business greed is actually political greed, while businesses are just casualties.
  - lock-the-spock 4y ago
    Your statement does not make much sense. As you correctly say, there are obligatory schemes to pay into in Europe. The companies could easily keep the same amounts at hand and pay them out at the same conditions - no difference whatsoever except corporate greed/lack of obligation.
  - alkonaut 4y ago
    Yes at least when I’m sick or on parental leave it’s not the company paying the parental leave money. The law makes it a requirement for my employer to let me take my parental leave, i.e they can’t refuse or not have my job there when I return. So while that’s a cost to them, of course they don’t pay me my 80% salary when I’m gone 6-12 months. Tax money does. My employer can use my salary money to pay for my replacement.
    - enedil 4y ago
      When I'm on sick leave in Poland, first two weeks are covered by the employer (80%) and only after that it's covered by tax money.
      - piaste 4y ago
        Italy is either two or three days, I can't remember which. The reason, I believe, is that there are random checks by the health service to ensure people on sick leave are actually sick. But if you only take a day off due to a headache, by the time it gets registered and checked you could have already got better - so your claim is hard to verify.* A dishonest employer could easily defraud the system by claiming a lot of individual, unverifiable "sick days" and getting the state to pay for a nice chunk of his payroll expenses. By contrast, an employer gets alerted sooner of an absence and is in a much better position to guess whether an employee claiming fake sicknesses. In case of suspicion they're legally allowed (at a small fee) to have a physician check on their employee from day 1. * now that I think about it, with everybody having a camera phone nowadays, this might eventually be solved - a video call might not be enough for a diagnosis, but it can probably tell "yep you're sick" with a reasonable degree of confidence?
  - MomoXenosaga 4y ago
    That would be a fair point if US businesses weren't donating to the GoP en masse.
  - Roark66 4y ago
    >For what it's worth I'm pretty sure there are systems in place in these countries which actually make it possible. right? >Like, there are insurances and government assistance programs that businesses use to pay for things like parental leave. >US businesses get no such help. So what is often attributed to US business greed is actually political greed, while businesses are just casualties. It really depends what are we talking about. In case of paid holiday leave (for example in Poland) everyone in normal employment gets at least 2 uninterrupted weeks by law. However even in my very first job many years ago I got 4 weeks total paid leave. All the pay gets paid by the employer. However, there are things like maternity leave that can take a year. It is unreasonable to expect an employer (perhaps a small business) to pay an employee for a year of maternity leave. So during this time one is entitled to 80% of their pay, but it is paid not by the employer, but the national insurance. The actual amount taken by people varies. It can be split between parents, voluntary given up etc. Then there is sick leave. If I remember correctly the usual thing was for the employer to pay for few initial days, the rest was paid for by the local equivalent of national insurance.
- pastage 4y ago
  Must suck being a father and not being able to take leave with your kids. We get 10 days when the baby is born. Plus lots of days until the child is X years, I think 11 years.
  - brnt 4y ago
    To be fair, it used to be two days (!) up until 5 years ago in the Netherlands. We're still the worst place for young parents and fathers in particular in western Europe.
- enedil 4y ago
  I'm not sure how it's counted, but in Poland we initially get 20 days and 26 after you work several years. Maybe the 4 weeks include national holidays, which don't count into the limit I mentioned.
  - fsw 4y ago
    20 days are 4 weeks if you work 5 days per week.
em-bee 4y ago
that's funny considering how someone else here is arguing that labor protection in austria is worse than other european countries.
tpm 4y ago
Well there are certainly differences. How about 3 years parental leave in Slovakia.

by phaer 4y ago

Symbiote 4y ago

Many countries go further, but the EU does require a minimum. - 4 weeks paid holiday - 4 months unpaid parental leave, 14 weeks paid for the mother https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_labour_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_labour_law is the best overview I can find.

sebazzz 4y ago
I got indeed 20 by law and 14 on top of that for a total of 34, but the latter is the exception. In IT 26-28 days are common.
warent 4y ago
For what it's worth I'm pretty sure there are systems in place in these countries which actually make it possible. right? Like, there are insurances and government assistance programs that businesses use to pay for things like parental leave. US businesses get no such help. So what is often attributed to US business greed is actually political greed, while businesses are just casualties.
- lock-the-spock 4y ago
  Your statement does not make much sense. As you correctly say, there are obligatory schemes to pay into in Europe. The companies could easily keep the same amounts at hand and pay them out at the same conditions - no difference whatsoever except corporate greed/lack of obligation.
- alkonaut 4y ago
  Yes at least when I’m sick or on parental leave it’s not the company paying the parental leave money. The law makes it a requirement for my employer to let me take my parental leave, i.e they can’t refuse or not have my job there when I return. So while that’s a cost to them, of course they don’t pay me my 80% salary when I’m gone 6-12 months. Tax money does. My employer can use my salary money to pay for my replacement.
  - enedil 4y ago
    When I'm on sick leave in Poland, first two weeks are covered by the employer (80%) and only after that it's covered by tax money.
    - piaste 4y ago
      Italy is either two or three days, I can't remember which. The reason, I believe, is that there are random checks by the health service to ensure people on sick leave are actually sick. But if you only take a day off due to a headache, by the time it gets registered and checked you could have already got better - so your claim is hard to verify.* A dishonest employer could easily defraud the system by claiming a lot of individual, unverifiable "sick days" and getting the state to pay for a nice chunk of his payroll expenses. By contrast, an employer gets alerted sooner of an absence and is in a much better position to guess whether an employee claiming fake sicknesses. In case of suspicion they're legally allowed (at a small fee) to have a physician check on their employee from day 1. * now that I think about it, with everybody having a camera phone nowadays, this might eventually be solved - a video call might not be enough for a diagnosis, but it can probably tell "yep you're sick" with a reasonable degree of confidence?
- MomoXenosaga 4y ago
  That would be a fair point if US businesses weren't donating to the GoP en masse.
- Roark66 4y ago
  >For what it's worth I'm pretty sure there are systems in place in these countries which actually make it possible. right? >Like, there are insurances and government assistance programs that businesses use to pay for things like parental leave. >US businesses get no such help. So what is often attributed to US business greed is actually political greed, while businesses are just casualties. It really depends what are we talking about. In case of paid holiday leave (for example in Poland) everyone in normal employment gets at least 2 uninterrupted weeks by law. However even in my very first job many years ago I got 4 weeks total paid leave. All the pay gets paid by the employer. However, there are things like maternity leave that can take a year. It is unreasonable to expect an employer (perhaps a small business) to pay an employee for a year of maternity leave. So during this time one is entitled to 80% of their pay, but it is paid not by the employer, but the national insurance. The actual amount taken by people varies. It can be split between parents, voluntary given up etc. Then there is sick leave. If I remember correctly the usual thing was for the employer to pay for few initial days, the rest was paid for by the local equivalent of national insurance.
pastage 4y ago
Must suck being a father and not being able to take leave with your kids. We get 10 days when the baby is born. Plus lots of days until the child is X years, I think 11 years.
- brnt 4y ago
  To be fair, it used to be two days (!) up until 5 years ago in the Netherlands. We're still the worst place for young parents and fathers in particular in western Europe.
enedil 4y ago
I'm not sure how it's counted, but in Poland we initially get 20 days and 26 after you work several years. Maybe the 4 weeks include national holidays, which don't count into the limit I mentioned.
- fsw 4y ago
  20 days are 4 weeks if you work 5 days per week.

em-bee 4y ago

that's funny considering how someone else here is arguing that labor protection in austria is worse than other european countries.

tpm 4y ago

Well there are certainly differences. How about 3 years parental leave in Slovakia.