03.18.2020 – 09.55 – As is natural between Friuli Venezia Giulia and Slovenia, where there are many crossborder workers, so between the young Republic and Austria there are countless Slovenian workers employed across the border.
The current pandemic is having its first concrete repercussions on the economy because
Austrian companies are laying off many workers – preferring cross-border workers. The Slovenian trade unions, in turn, are observing how these redundancies are taking place in accordance with Austrian law, without guaranteeing any form of unemployment benefit.
Slovenian workers return home for quarantine and as such cannot enjoy any economic protection.
This fact shows once again that there is a disconnection in the European Union –neighboring countries do not provide for a trivial protocol to protect the worker.
Although it is difficult to get reliable information, according to the Austrian radio broadcast ORF, Austria has dismissed around 16 thousand workers in a single day.
Vienna recommended companies to provide all the dismissed workers with a document that would make it clear that the dismissal was temporary and would contain the necessary insurance to guarantee unemployment benefits.
But according to the Slovenian trade unions, most of the Austrian companies simply made mass redundancies.
Austria made Slovenian workers redundant and Slovenia was forced to close restaurants and pubs, where large shares of Hungarian citizens worked.
At the present time, the Hungarian border is still open for Hungarians returning to the country.
