Employment Termination and Notice Period in Austria

In Austria any unlimited employment contract can be terminated by mutual agreement on the termination or by unilateral decision. In the latter, the employer can decide to give a notice period to the employee or to terminate it immediately without mentioning a reason.

Termination with notice by the employer does not usually require a reason for dismissal but it has to respect the following notice periods based on the length of serviced provided by the employee. Being able to terminate a contract is not that common in Europe without a reason is not that common in Europe. Therefore Austria is relatively employer-friendly.

The notice periods in Austria are:

• 0-2 years of service - 6 weeks’ notice period
• 2-5 years of service - 2 months’ notice period
• 5-15 years of service - 3 month's notice period
• 15-25 years of service - 4 months’ notice period
• more than 25 years of service - 5 months’ notice period

All employees must give at least one month's notice, regardless of their length of service.

On the other hand, termination without notice can happen for valid reasons, which are:

• if the employee is disloyal to the employer
• if the employee is unable to perform the promised or appropriate (reasonable) services
• any breach of the prohibition of competition
• if the employee disobeys orders
• if the employee refuses to work for a period deemed reasonable under the circumstances without any legitimate excuse
• if he attempts to induce others to disobey the employers orders

In the case of fair summary dismissal, the employee receives his salary until the date of dismissal together with any pro rata share of special payments.