Vienna hospital conflict

Lorenz Böhler staff give AUVA bosses ultimatum

At the works meeting in front of the Lorenz Böhler Hospital, the Medical Association and the trade union demonstratively stood by the hospital staff.(Bild: Gerhard Bartel)

The staff of the Lorenz Böhler Hospital have given the AUVA bosses one week to fulfill three demands in the fight to close the hospital. Otherwise, consequences are to follow in AUVA hospitals throughout Austria. The pressure is mounting: more and more allies are rallying around the "Böhlerians". 

The "Böhlerians" sent out a signal that was as loud as it was short on time - "patient care will not be affected", guaranteed works council member Manfred Rabensteiner to applause from those present - at a public works meeting on Wednesday morning in front of the Lorenz Böhler Hospital. The staff made three demands, which the AUVA bosses have one week to fulfill.

AUVA threatened with nationwide state of emergency
The hospital staff's first demand: they want the AUVA bosses to promise in writing that there will be no changes to employment contracts. Secondly, they are insisting on a clear concept and a clear timetable as to how the hospital crisis is to be turned back into an orderly operation. Thirdly and finally, the staff want access to all documents used to justify the hospital closure. This right has so far been denied to the staff.

Under no circumstances will we allow fire safety to be used as an argument for saying goodbye to the Lorenz Böhler Hospital.

Barbara Teiber, Vorsitzende der Gewerkschaft der Privatangestellten (GPA)

If the AUVA management does not meet the demands, the hospital staff in Vienna will go on strike. They have already asked for the backing of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) and, according to Barbara Teiber, chair of the GPA trade union at the works meeting, they can hope for this. But the plan is not limited to Vienna: There will also be work interruptions in other AUVA hospitals throughout Austria. Numerous AUVA employees from the provinces had already traveled to the works meeting in Vienna.

The workforce will not accept the end of the Lorenz Böhler Hospital without a fight.(Bild: Martin Jöchl)

In addition to the trade union, the head of the Vienna Medical Association also demonstratively attended the works meeting. Both President Johannes Steinhart and Natalja Haninger-Vacariu, the representative of Vienna's hospital doctors, share the demands of the workforce and spoke of the AUVA's actions as a "slap in the face of the workforce and patients" and "absolute mismanagement, bad style and an expression of extremely low esteem for employees and patients".

"Termination without notice" for AUVA Director General?
In fact, the staff are not only concerned with being able to perform their duties - they also see the actions of the AUVA management as a personal insult: a photo of the historic black ice in Vienna on February 17, 2021 and rescue cars in a traffic jam in front of the hospital was proudly shown: 450 patients were treated in one day. "The hospital worked, and why? Because the hospital took over the crisis management itself back then - but now the AUVA management has," said many retired "Böhlerians" who had come to the meeting to thunderous applause.

The fact that AUVA Director General Alexander Bernart even openly threatened employees with immediate dismissal in the event of public criticism of the company's top management could now become a boomerang for him. Bernart referred to the section in the employment contracts that prohibits "damaging the reputation of AUVA". In the view of the Central Works Council, however, nobody has damaged the reputation of AUVA as much as Bernart himself. Whether this is enough to dismiss the boss without notice will be the subject of a legal opinion.