Usage of modern information and communications technologies in Austria is still at a relatively early stage, with the majority of companies currently sceptical about the opportunities available to them. This cautious attitude extends also to public authorities. However, Austria is rapidly developing its telecommunications infrastructure and there is increased momentum building up, which is likely to encourage greater use of new technologies in business in the near future.
Recent studies indicate that up to an optimistic maximum of 6% of Austrian companies have already tried at least once some kind of teleworking, and about 19% stating "being interested" in the subject (Finder 1996). In terms of attitudes and expectations amongst the overall population, a survey (Spectra 1997) reveals 66% of the population think of teleworking positively, and only 24% are explicitly sceptical. However, only two out of hundred employees have already had practical experience of telework, and many of these are the better educated and young segments of social strata. Concerning the types of teleworking practised, most are engaged in the classic type of home-based telework, but there are quite significant numbers - despite little impact and still very few really successful examples - of pilot projects to develop telecentres and telecottages. These are often structured around different forms of public-private partnership. This year the Austrian Office of Weights and Measures started to transform a number of their 67 regional offices into public telecentres. Two Austrian telecentres participated in the Offnet (Networked European Neighbourhood Offices) project, part of the European Commission's Telework Stimulation Programme.
Some large enterprises (especially companies in the IT sector) already have experience of implementing telework programmes. IBM Austria experimented with an alternating (part home-based, part office-based) field trial from 1994-1996 which involved 26 teleworkers. Hewlett-Packard has run a similar scheme since 1995 (15 teleworkers), whilst Siemens' telework project has involved about 60 people. Other firms involved include Ericsson-Schrack, Alcatel and Kapsch (the latter two exploring the use of telecentres and satellite offices).
| Bruck an der Leitung In this telecentre initiative, the aim is to combine better living and working within the community. With the large number of commuters to Vienna, and, in that group, a high proportion for whom a teleworking scheme is feasible, the direct target group to be served is 2,000 commuters. By combining the provision of office space to tele-commuters with services, ranging from Internet access to childcare facilities, from training to DTP and secretarial services, the telecentre initiative brings together the best parts of earlier initiatives around the world. |
Teleworking has been the subject of a comprehensive report by the white-collar trade union
GPA23. The GPA also has published recommendations of how to set up individual work
contracts for telework, agreements on shop floor level, and has successfully negotiated
the first collective agreement on telework implementation with the oil industry.
A number of telework seminars and conferences for Austrian business were held in Vienna in 1996 (Vienna also played host to the international Telework 96 conference in November last year). There is now a proposal to create an Austrian Telework Association, to provide among other things a 'telejob' web site. There are also plans to translate and adapt the Teleworking Handbook (written for the UK/Irish TCA organisation) for the Austrian context.
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