ABSTRACT
The major part of social policy, and especially labour market policy, is a competence of the social partners. This means that Parliament has a somewhat weaker role, because what comes to us is already arranged policy packages. [...] If the whole thing eventually appears in the media, it was actually agreed weeks and months in advance, behind closed doors. And it is very difficult to know what the nature of the deal was, to know what the position of the trade unions was, how it was met in the negotiations [...] So you really need personal contacts inside the organisations and people who communicate things to you. Often, internal contact persons within the organisations do not know much either, because the elites of the trade unions are probably better connected to the elites of the employers than with their own hierarchy. Social Policy Advisor, Green Party Austria (Interview aut5)
