Austria to order Post rivals to pay same salaries

VIENNA, April 20 (Reuters) - Austria will order postal operators competing with Austrian Post AG (POST.VI) to pay the same salaries as the state-run incumbent when markets are opened in 2011, the infrastructure ministry said on Monday.

The move, contained in a draft postal law by the ministry, is similar to German rules which in effect stifled competition with Deutsche Post AG (DPWGn.DE) for delivering regular letters in Austria's neighbour to the north.

"The draft law states that salaries and general working conditions must not be worse than those of the operator providing universal service," said a spokeswoman for Infrastructure Minister Doris Bures, a Social Democrat.

Only Austrian Post provides universal postal services in remote rural and Alpine areas of the country. The operator has said in the past it was worried alternative providers would cherry-pick and offer their services only in urban areas.

Under the draft regulation, alternative operators would also be required to pay into a fund that would reimburse the state-owned operator's expenses for providing universal postal service, the ministry said.

All operators -- including Austrian Post -- would pay into this fund according to their respective market share.

The draft law still needs approval by the Social Democrats' conservative government coalition partner. (Reporting by Boris Groendahl; Editing by David Holmes)