ABSTRACT
After the blue-black government came to power in 2000, the nature of social partnership completely changed. The government regularly invited employers only and then declared “the social partners were there”. They began to kick out labour representatives from all the structures of social partnership, and even from all the places of power in the entire social security system. The trade unions have taken the opportunity, so to speak, to reach a negotiated outcome [on this issue] instead of being even more excluded. This is in fact the only reason why this agreement came into being. Social policy expert, Austrian Green Party (Interview aut5).
