No money for teachers

Pension affair has political repercussions

Niko Swatek (Neos)

(Bild: LT-Stmk/Erwin Scheriau)

For ten years, too little money was paid into the pension fund for 7000 Styrian teachers. The "Steirerkrone" uncovered the affair - now the NEOS are also submitting an urgent question to the provincial parliament.

The "Steirerkrone" made the case public: a whopping 3,657,601 euros too little in contributions are said to have been transferred to the employee pension fund ("Abfertigung neu") between 2009 and 2019 - to the detriment of a good 7,000 teachers at Styrian vocational and compulsory schools. As a result, Provincial Councillor Werner Amon and Minister Martin Polaschek activated the internal audit department to get to the bottom of the matter.

Neos want to "bring light into the darkness"
However, this is not enough for the Neos - they are submitting anurgent question on the severance pay affair at the next session of the state parliament "so that a complete investigation can begin": "State Councillor Amon must promise the teachers their 3.7 million euros and shed light on the matter: Did the state government deliberately try to cover up this scandal? We will provide clarification," emphasizes Klubobmann Niko Swatek.

The Neos also refer to Andreas Berghold from the Independent Teachers' Union, who claims to have drawn attention to this situation back in 2019: "In December 2019, I first informed both the Education Directorate and the Province of Styria by email that an error had apparently been made in the calculation of contributions to the employee pension fund. To date, I have not received a reply, nor have the colleagues affected been informed, nor have any recognizable steps been taken to rectify the problem! The affected teachers are being fobbed off with lip service in the media - appreciation looks different!"

Amon: "Always guaranteed that nobody loses anything"
The state councillor responsible, Werner Amon (ÖVP), is "somewhat surprised" that there will now be an "urgent matter" on the subject: "The case has been known in the media for more than half a year and there is now also a consolidated report on the internal audit", which he has also made available to the parties represented in the state parliament. Furthermore, he has always guaranteed "that no teacher affected will lose anything".