Employment, Labour & Pensions

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, 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!

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