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Employment & Pensions Law Firm in Austria

The labour market’s development is dynamic, and labour law is constantly changing, not just in Austria. Change is triggered by the factual framework, e.g. the rise of matrix organisations or the labour market becoming a supplier market.

Other fields of law, such as data protection and tax law, also affect labour law. Rules and developments of EU law, for instance on non-discrimination and working hours, have a great impact on labour law in Austria. Labour law therefore necessitates a comprehensive perspective. As employers, companies face steadily growing and changing requirements for business structures and their configuration in accordance with labour law. Competent and practical advice on complex issues of labour law is therefore becoming ever more important.

CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz is one of Austria’s leading law firms, with more than 30 years of specialised experience in labour law. Our labour law team has won many awards for successfully supporting numerous national and multinational clients in all areas of labour and social law. Next to our office in Vienna and our recently established consultation desk in Linz, CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz has ten further offices in the CEE region. In addition, we are connected with more than 5,000 lawyers globally as part of the CMS network.

Our expertise

In the field of labour law, CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz is recognised as Austria’s largest and leading law firm in all areas of individual and collective labour law, as well as European labour law. Areas of emphasis include workplace labour relations, employee data protection and working hours, as well as equal treatment and non-discrimination. Our lawyers also focus on specialisations such as theatre employment law, company pension law, and labour law at universities.

We advise on the ESG-compliant design and transformation of working conditions (also developing working time and remuneration models, as well as model contracts) and aid in negotiations of collective bargaining agreements and works council agreements (especially regarding working hours, IT use and redundancy programmes). We support our clients in handling cases of mobbing and discrimination, establishing in-house conflict management and terminating work relationships, and advise them on transactions, reorganisation, restructuring, and international deployment of personnel. A further focus of our services is advising public authorities as well as formerly state-owned enterprises and legal entities, such as universities and cultural enterprises.

Our team’s decades of experience with HR processes pays off particularly when it comes to screening, optimising and, if necessary, restructuring HR landscapes. We can thus advise on modelling and implementing new time management processes, and have developed proprietary tools for simple, uncomplicated, and legally sound time tracking.
We represent our clients in national and international courts and supreme courts (also in the ECJ), in equal treatment commissions, conciliation bodies, arbitral tribunals, and vis-à-vis administrative authorities. We also offer our expertise in negotiations with trade unions and works councils, both in Austria and for all transnational issues.

Awards and rankings

Leading Austrian and international rankings (Legal 500, Chambers, JUVE) have recognised our extensive labour law expertise year after year. We have also repeatedly been named law firm of the year for labour law in Austria by Best Lawyers in cooperation with the German business and financial daily Handelsblatt. The law journal JUVE has ranked us in first place among Austria’s best labour law teams multiple times.

Our Austrian and international labour law specialisations at a glance

  • Drafting and negotiating works council agreements and collective bargaining agreements
  • Working hours: implementing flexitime and other working time models
  • Pay structures and monitoring (Wage and Social Dumping Prevention Act)
  • Public employment law and labour law for formerly state-owned enterprises
  • Advising universities and theatres
  • Non-discrimination and diversity
  • ESG-compliant design of working conditions
  • Employee data protection
  • Whistleblowing
  • European labour and social law, litigation in the ECJ
  • Temporary work (transnational issues), posting of workers
  • Company pensions and pension funds
  • Drafting, amending and terminating contracts (employment contracts, contracts for work/services)
  • Management and board members’ contracts
  • Transactions, reorganisation and restructuring
  • Post-merger integration

Get to know our team of employment and pensions law experts here!

"CMS is always up-to-date, quickly adapts to changing conditions and offers clients the opportunity to quickly inform themselves about current topics through its newsletters, business breakfasts and webinars."

Chambers Europe, Employment, 2023

"The strengths and key competencies of the team are unique and incomparable."

"Very high level of expertise across the most diverse fields of labour law."

The Legal 500, Employment, 2023

‘Immediate responses, excellent consultancy, very successful with court cases.’

‘Very experienced team, well-acknowledged expert, good reputation on the market.’

‘The cooperation with the labor law team differs in the legal nature and the excellent representation in court.’

‘Excellent, solution-oriented expertise, especially in public employment and in relation to unions.’

‘Responsive, clear and easy to work with.’

Legal 500 EMEA, 2022

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Arbeitszeit & Recht
Arbeitszeit & Recht
Schöne, neue, komplizierte Arbeitszeitwelt. Über 100 Paragrafen, unterschiedliche Überstunden- und Mehrstundenzuschläge, Bandbreit
Gleichbehandlung & Diversität
Alle gleich, oder manche gleicher?Gleichbehandlung und Diversität in der Arbeitswelt . Talent kennt keine Hautfarbe, Ambition kein Geschlech
Abstract blue purple lines
Umstrukturierung & Reorganisation
Komplexe Anforderungen an Veränderungen. Umstrukturierungs- oder Reorganisationsprojekte können vielfältig sein. Sie reichen von der Ve
Employee Data Protection & Compliance
Employee data protection is a compliance issue. Although processing of personal data of and by employees is ubiquitous in the world of employment, onl

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24/04/2024
Join Our Team – Arbeitsrecht & Personalaufnahme an Universitäten
Am 24.04.2024 findet unter dem Titel "Join our team" eine Tagung für Arbeitsrecht und Personalaufnahme an Universitäten am WU Campus in Wien statt. Pro­gramm­high­lights:   9.30 - 10.15 Uhr Grundfragen des Beru­fungs­ver­fahrens nach §§ 98, 99 UG Univ. Prof. Dr. Christoph Kietaibl10.15 - 10.25 Uhr Kommentar: Dr. Andrea Potz15.30 - 16.15 Uhr Ver­fahrens­recht und Rechtsschutz bei der Aufnahme von Uni­versität­sper­son­al Hon.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Wolf
21/03/2024
CMS Employment Snack | Arbeitsrecht und Datenschutz – eine Stan­dortbestim­mung
CMS Employment Snack
15/03/2024
CMS advises Sfakianakis Group on the acquisition of Ajar Car Rental
Press release - 15 March 2024 CMS Austria has advised the Greek Sfakianakis Group on the acquisition of Ajar Car Rental GmbH from the Saudi Arabian Al Jomaih Group, providing comprehensive legal advice on the project. Ajar Car Rental GmbH is the master franchisee of Enterprise, National, and Alamo in Austria, serving rent-a-car customers across the country. During the acquisition, the CMS Austria team provided significant support and advice on all areas of the transaction, including due diligence, employment, regulatory compliance, intellectual property, banking and finance, data protection and competition. Alexander Rakosi (Partner, Corporate/M&A) led the CMS core transaction team, which further consisted of Christoph Birner (Associate, Corporate/M&A) and Thomas Liegl (Associate, Corporate/M&A). Alexander Rakosi comments: “We are very pleased to have successfully supported the Sfakianakis Group on its market entry into Austria and to have contributed to our client's continued growth in the automotive industry."The CMS due diligence team included Rebecca Herlitz (Associate, Corporate/M&A), Mariella Kapoun (Partner, Real Estate), Hans Lederer (Partner, Intellectual Property), Andreas Lichtenberger (At­tor­ney-at-Law, Data Protection), Caroline Pavitsits (Associate, Employment), Kai Ruckelshausen (Partner, Banking & Finance), Sheldon Sookdeo (Associate, Banking & Finance), Maximilian Uidl (Associate, Real Estate), Marlene Wim­mer-Nistel­ber­ger (Partner, Regulatory), Jens Winter (Partner, Employment) and Dieter Zandler (Partner, Competition), as well as legal trainees Roman Namestek, Ferdinand Sima and Mattias Torggler. PHH Rechtsanwälte, led by Rainer Kaspar and Philip Rosenauer, provided legal support to Al Jomaih. About Sfakianakis Group Founded in 1958, Sfakianakis Group is one of the leading diversified business groups in Greece, with a core focus on the Automotive, Industrial and Consumer Retail sectors. Headquartered in Athens, Greece, the Group is 100% family owned and employs over 1,500 individuals across 14 countries in Europe. Within the Automotive sector, the Group operates one of the largest automotive retail businesses in the region, the distribution businesses of BYD and Suzuki, a leading long-term leasing business (Executive Lease), and a rapidly growing Rent-A-Car business as the Master Franchisee of En­ter­prise-Na­tion­al-Alamo in 14 countries.
05/03/2024
CMS Employment Snack | Close the Gap – wie die Lohntrans­par­en­zricht­linie...
Veröffentlicht am 05.03.2024Der Gender Pay Gap reduziert sich nach wie vor nur langsam. Mit der Lohntrans­par­en­zricht­linie soll das Tempo beschleunigt werden. Dies ist mit rechtlich bedeutenden Änderungen und Fallstricken für die tägliche HR-Arbeit ver­bunden. Un­sere Arbeitsrecht- und Gleich­be­hand­lung­s­ex­per­tinnen Andrea Potz und Daniela Krömer sprechen gemeinsam mit Christoph Wolf über beschränkte Fragerechte in Be­w­er­bung­s­prozessen, klare Konsequenzen bei fehlenden Entgeltberichten und die rechtlichen Konsequenzen, wenn der Gender Pay Gap im Unternehmen nicht kleiner wird.  Themen   Auskunfts- und Fragerechte in Be­w­er­bung­s­prozessen­In­form­a­tion­sp­f­licht­en während dem laufenden Arbeits­ver­hält­nis(fehlende) Entgeltberichte und ihre rechtlichen Fol­genSozi­al­part­ner­schaft­liche En­t­gelt­be­w­er­tun­gRechts­durch­set­zung und Strafen
21/02/2024
The works council as a controller under the GDPR
CMS NewsMonitor Employment Law | Episode 30
06/02/2024
No more time-barring of accumulated annual leave?
CMS NewsMonitor Employment Law  | Episode 29
22/01/2024
Employment, restructuring & insolvency – What happens when something happens
CMS NewsMonitor Employment Law  | Episode 28
19/01/2024
CBAM: Just over a week to comply
As the deadline for the first Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) report approaches on January 31st, it is crucial for undertakings engaged in importing relevant goods into the European Union to...
25/10/2023
What to consider in case of a strike
CMS NewsMonitor Employment Law  | Episode 27
17/10/2023
Remote Working Legislation, Laws & Regulations in Austria
1. Is there any legislation relating to working from home in your country? Yes, legislation was introduced in April 2021. The legislation only covers working from home, and not mobile work in general...
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09/10/2023
Changes in parental leave, part-time parental leave, and carers’ leave
CMS NewsMonitor Arbeitsrecht  | Episode 26
16/08/2023
Whistleblower protection and reporting channels in Austria
1. Is there a law on whistleblowing in your country? Yes, this law is the Act on the Procedure and Protection in Case of Reports of Legal Violations in certain areas of law (also known as the Whistleblower...
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