In this page, we’ll break down all you need to know about leave laws in Austria.
Read on to learn about employees’ rights in regards to paid time off/annual leave, sick leave, parental leave, national/public holidays, and more.
This page is intended for reference purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please see official government sources or consult a legal professional for actual legal advice.
After six months of service with their employer, employees in Austria are entitled to five weeks of paid annual leave. This equals 30 working days for workers on a 6-day working week, or 25 days for those on a 5-day working week (and fewer for part-time employees, in accordance with their regular number of working days).
From the 26th year of service with the same employer, the employee is entitled to six weeks of paid annual leave (this length of service does not have to be continuous).
The employee has a year to use their annual leave. The law states that leave can expire after one calendar year (although individual employment agreements may extend this).
When an employee leaves their job, any unused annual leave must be paid out.
Learn more about Use It or Lose It policies here.
Austria leave laws entitle employees to paid sick leave, paid at their regular working wage, with the length of time depending on the service time (uninterrupted) with their current employer.
Following the expiration of this time, the employee may take a further four weeks of sick leave at half pay.
The following are public holidays in Austria:
| Date | Holiday |
|---|---|
| January 1 | New Year’s Day |
| January 6 | Epiphany |
| April 5 | Easter Monday |
| May 1 | Labour Day |
| May 13 | Ascension Day |
| May 24 | Whit Monday |
| June 3 | Corpus Christi |
| August 15 | Assumption |
| October 26 | National Holiday |
| November 1 | All Saints |
| December 8 | Immaculate Conception |
| December 25 | Christmas Day |
| December 26 | St Stephen’s Day |
Employees are entitled to a day off plus their regular pay for a public holiday, unless the public holiday falls on a Sunday.
Employees in Austria are entitled to 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, beginning eight weeks before birth and ending eight weeks after birth. This period is known as Mutterschutz, a period in which the mother is prohibited from working at all, but the employment relationship continues to exist, and the employee receives 100% of her regular pay.
Parents are entitled to take parental leave (during which wages/salary are suspended) until the child reaches 24 months. The minimum period of parental leave is two months, and the employee cannot be dismissed or terminated up until four weeks after the end of their parental leave.
Though parental leave is unpaid, the employee can apply for a childcare allowance, known as Kinderbetreuungsgeld, from Social Security.
Employees are entitled to two weeks paid leave per year to care for a sick child under the age of 12, and one week to care for other dependants or family members.
Employees also have a right to a maximum of six months of family hospice leave for nursing terminally ill family members, or nine months for severely ill children.
Bereavement leave is not mentioned by law in Austria.
What is Bereavement Leave? Click here to learn more.
https://www.bmaw.gv.at/en/Topics/Labour-Law/Paid-Leave-and-Leave.html
https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokumente/Erv/ERV_1983_144/ERV_1983_144.html
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