New Austrian Teleworking Act Underway

May 31, 2024 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

A new teleworking law has been initiated and a draft submitted for review by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Labour and Economics. Among other things, it will amend the Employment Contract Amendment Act (Arbeitsvertragsrechts-Anpassungsgesetz, hereinafter AVRAG), the Social Security Acts (Sozialversicherungsgesetze), and the 1988 Income Tax Act (Einkommenssteuergesetz 1988, hereinafter EStG).

An evaluation has recently been carried out of the teleworking arrangements that had been introduced as part of the COVID-19 pandemic. The following changes have now been proposed as a result of this evaluation:

• Instead of ‘home office’, the term ‘teleworking’ is now used throughout.[i]
• Up to now, Section 2h of the AVRAG had only provided for the possibility of agreeing on working from home at the employee’s place of residence. In future, the AVRAG will create a labour law framework for agreeing on telework at any place of the employee’s choice that is not located on company premises, i.e., telework will not be restricted to the employee’s place of residence.
• Telework, including the actual place where the work is carried out, must be agreed in writing between the employee and the employer (Section 2h (2) of the new AVRAG).
• In future, a distinction will be made between telework in the narrower sense (at home, at a close relative’s home, or in a co-working space) and telework in the broader sense (all other locations) for the purposes of accident insurance (accidents at work and commuting accidents).
• Work-related accidents are covered for both telework and telework in the broad sense.
• Commuting accidents (accidents that occur on the way to work) are only covered for teleworking in the narrow sense (e.g. travelling to the co-working space). In the case of teleworking in the broader sense (e.g. travelling to a park or holiday home), the employee bears the risk of the journey and is not covered by accident insurance.
• Based on the broad definition of teleworking (Section 2h of the AVRAG), the possibility of the existing homeworking flat rate (Section 26(9) EStG) is extended.

337/ME – XXVII. GP (6 May 2024)

[i] The Austrian terms are, respectively, Homeoffice and Telearbeit.