BUAG amendment on the way

Mar 31, 2021 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), the Greens and the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) submitted a joint motion to the Social Affairs Committee to amend the Construction Workers' Leave and Severance Pay Act (Bauarbeiter-Urlaubs- und Abfertigungsgesetz, BUAG) and the Construction Workers' Bad Weather Compensation Act (Bauarbeiter-Schlechtwetterentschädigungsgesetz, BSchEG).

First, in the event of the death of the employee, their spouse, registered partner and children shall also be entitled to the bridge allowance (Sec. 3c (5) BUAG).

In future, the calculation of the monthly amount of the bridge allowance shall no longer be based on the hourly wage under the collective agreement of the last year, but on the last five years. This is to prevent short-term increases in the collective agreement classification for abusive increases in cash benefits (Sec. 13l (2) and (2a) BUAG).

In addition, the possibility is to be created for employees to interrupt the receipt of the bridge allowance - which is in principle only due once - for one or more months in order to work for their last BUAG employer (Sec. 13l (6) BUAG).

Workers who fulfil the other requirements for the bridge allowance and cannot acquire a claim to it only because they become disabled before reaching the age of 58 are to be entitled to a settlement in future. This is to amount to 50% of the notionally entitled bridge allowance for 12 months (Sec. 13m BUAG).

In order to prevent social fraud and wage dumping, the financial and tax authorities, the health insurers and the AMS are to be able to access the database of the Construction Workers' Leave and Severance Pay Fund (Bauarbeiter-Urlaubs- und Abfertigungskasse, BUAK) in future and thereby inspect certain documents (Sec. 31 BUAG).

There are to be special provisions in the BSchEG for long-term postings. In the future, employers will be required to pay compensation amounting to 60% of wages to workers whose posting or transfer period exceeds one year in the event of loss of wages due to bad weather.

1289/A XXVII. GP, Initiativantrag (24.02.2021)