Introduction
Employment law is extensively regulated by statutory mandatory law to ensure the protection of employees. Unlike in other countries, Austrian employment law is extremely fragmented and not codified in one single codex of law. Since Austria's accession to the European Union in January 1995, EU law has played an increasingly significant role in Austrian employment law. Apart from EU and codified law, collective bargaining agreements (i.e., written agreements between employers and employee associations) set out special regulations for specific trades and industries.
All labour and employment-related disputes are subject to the jurisdiction of the labour and social courts. Several authorities in Austria are competent to enforce statutory employment law. The most important authority in this respect is the Labour Inspectorate, which monitors the compliance of employers with statutory safety regulations such as working time and workplace security.
Year in review
As was the case in 2020, covid-19 remained the dominant topic throughout 2021. Austria faced severe covid-19 waves and the federal government ordered, inter alia, long-lasting lockdowns. In parallel, the series of government aid and support measures implemented in 2020 to cushion the economic effects of covid-19 remained in force in 2021. The following are some of the most important employment law-related government actions.
i Short-time work
The federal government issued a highly successful short-time work...
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