Salt work is hard labour

The salt workers' work was particularly hard and harmful to health. After the water evaporated, the crystalline salt remained as a residue in the pan. It was pressed into wooden moulds to form piles and tamped down with tappets. The conical salt sticks, the Fuder, were taken by the Fuderträger to drying houses where they dried.

This work, such as the loading and unloading of the salt pellets by the cart-loaders, was particularly strenuous. The oxen weighed 115 pounds, about 64.4 kg. To protect their heads, shoulders and necks, they wore leather hoods to avoid being burned by the salt. The salt sticks were carried with a board as a support on the shoulder, a stick on the other shoulder supported the back end of the heavy load.

In 1561, a new type of cart was introduced in Hallstatt. The weight increased from 56 kg to up to 84 kg by 1753.

Until the last third of the 19th century, the production of truncated cone-shaped salt, which was called Füderlsalz or Stöckelsalz at the alpine saltworks, was predominant with a unit weighing between 17 kg and 20 kg.

The loaders and pushers who pressed the wet salt into the wooden moulds were usually paid at the end of each boiling week, depending on the number of salt foudres that had been pressed.