I am journalist. Online journalist.

Mediengruppe Online and trade union. Cooperative survey 2008/2009.

Igler, Reitstätter 12/09 2

Online-Survey 2008

132 participants65 employed61 Freelancer80 % of the Employees with collective

agreementBut only 13,5 % as Journalists64 % IT- or PR-Collective agreement11 % of the employees contracts relate to the

austrian journalistlaw (eg. more holidays after ten years)

(December 2008 – Februar 2009)

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System of collective bargaining in Austria

• Approx over 600 collective agreements

• 160 negotiated from GPA-djp (union for private salaried employed people and print workers)

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Who negotiate?

• Obligatory employer association (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich)

• Volontary employer associations

WKO

Newspaper associatiationPrivat radio association

Print magazine association

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A short time shift - 1999 1/4

• GPA and DJP 2 unions

• -> GPA private salaried employedwhich was used to negotiate collective agreements with the obligatory employers association

• -> djp print workers and journalists (print, public and private broadcasting, freelancers, photographers)

which was used to negotiate collective agreements with voluntary empolyers associations

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A short time shift - 1999 2/4

• (Print-)Journalists had an update of their collective agreement integration online journalists and freelancers

• As soon as the agreement was signed, employers started to outsource their online departments 0r create separate online departments

• Leading to other working and wage conditions negotiated from different social partnersThe obligatory employers association and the Trade Union for private salaried employed

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A short time shift - 1999 3/4

• In concrete (print-)online journalists found themselves

• represented from non-journalistic social partners

• in two different sectors: IT and PR• two different collective agreements:

IT and PR, which none was constructed for journalists

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A short time shift - 1999 4/4

• Journalists Union and Union for private salaried employed people found themselves in a strange situation either

• Are these people journalists or not? Is it PR or IT?

• Austria has a law which defines journalists, listing print and traditional electronic media, missing the word online

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Mediengruppe Onlinehttp://mediengruppeonline.wordpress.com

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Other Results of the Survey• Low Selfesteem („I‘m an Editor, Online-Editor“)• 80 % write own Storys, 60 % conduct Interviews, 30

% visit Pressconferences on a regular basis – so they do work as journalists

• About 50 Percent of the employees earn between 1.500 and 2.500 Euro (3/4 work fulltime)Freelancers earn between 1.000 and 2.000 Euro (not all work fulltime), 11 to 12 Euros per hourPercentage women men equal

• 62 % of Employees an 54 % of Freelancers have a university degree

• Freelancers are younger than employees, all together more than 50 percent are between 20 and 30 years

• Awareness of being in the wrong collective contract

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Ten years after – 2009 1/2

• One Union GPA-djp -> Within the union‘s logic the oursourced online-departments are now all part of the journalists union part

• (Print-)Publishers tried to outsource their journalists the same way they did 10 years before with onine – which the union in most cases successfully stoped

• (Print-)Journalists and publishers are updating their collective agreement. Aiming to reintegrate online journalists (same wage or not? Different working conditions regarding working time regulations or not?)

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Ten years after – 2009 2/2

• Online-journalistic working councils are discussing their matters at the PR-collective agreements negotiations, leading to negotiations how to get them out of the obligatory employers association.

• Journalists print and online build the negotiation team of the print-collective agreement.

• Online-Journalists becoming part of trade union board.

Es gibt vieles,

für das es sich lohnt,

organisiert zu sein.