KABEG takes disputed clinic shift agreement to court

KABEG has referred a dispute over staffing shifts at a new initial-care outpatient clinic in Klagenfurt to the labour and social court, ORF reports. The dispute centres on plans to assign staff from the hospital’s central admissions and initial-care unit to cover the new clinic.

Interest among staff in working at the new outpatient clinic, known as EVA, has been limited. KABEG’s nursing management is proposing new working hours for employees from the existing unit. In a staff vote, 40 voted against the proposed works agreement and three voted in favour, according to central works council chairman Michael Kraxner.

Staff members object in particular to shifts that start in the late afternoon and end at 10 p.m. They say the schedule is worse than their current day and night shifts because it leaves little time for other activities before or after work.

KABEG’s personnel director referred the case to the labour and social court, where a conciliation body is expected to seek a solution. Nursing director Margarete Peternel-Scheiber said KABEG has a clear legal duty to establish the outpatient clinic and needs the proposed working hours to staff it.

The late-afternoon and evening hours are intended to provide care when general practitioners and specialists are closed. A similar model has been operating in Villach for three years, Peternel-Scheiber said, for patients who need a GP practice rather than the central admissions and initial-care unit.

The works council says it remains open to talks to reach an agreement in Klagenfurt without going to court. KABEG’s nursing management expects a court decision within weeks. The outpatient clinic at Klinikum Klagenfurt is due to open early next year.

Team Kärnten said the EVA project was welcome in principle but called it odd that KABEG was seeking to assign staff from the unit the new clinic was intended to relieve. The party’s Gerhard Köfer said the case reflected poorly on KABEG as an employer and argued the project was not fully developed.

Olga Voglauer, head of the Carinthian Greens, also criticised the plan, saying staff should not be assigned against their will. She said pressure would not solve the staffing shortage or build trust and a lasting solution.