Posting of workers platform

Remote work

To what extent do the Austrian rules on the cross-border posting and hiring-out of workers apply to remote work?

Employees are increasingly using electronic media and up-to-date information technology (such as email, smartphone apps, audio and video communications, web conferencing software, social media, etc.) for their work.

If an employee provides work 100% virtually using electronic media only, as far as the activity itself is concerned it doesn’t matter where and how far away they are. They can work just as easily at their regular place of work as they can from some other place (remote work, working from home, “workation”).

In certain cases, however, even purely virtual activities may be subject to the Austrian provisions governing cross-border posting and hiring-out of workers. Those cases are determined using the criteria applicable to any other case of cross-border posting and hiring-out:

  • Where is the worker's habitual place of work?
  • Is the virtual activity associated with any change of physical location away from that habitual place of work?
  • Is the change of location relevant to the work carried out and related performance?

Viewed in light of these criteria, an employee is not posted or hired out to Austria if they carry out the virtual activity

  • at their habitual place of work or
  • somewhere other than their habitual place of work, but the employee does not travel or relocate to Austria with the intention to provide further services or to produce any outcome for further services.

However, an employee is assumed to have been posted or hired out if they

  • travel to Austria to carry out the virtual activity there and to better liaise with contractual partners of their employer or otherwise to better perform a service contract to which their employer is a party or
  • are not a citizen of an EU Member State (third-country national) and work virtually in Austria on more than a short-term basis (approximately two weeks).

Possible situations include the following:

1. An employee who is a citizen of an EU Member State whose habitual place of work is outside Austria works in Austria of her/his own volition via electronic media only. There is no commercial benefit to the employer resulting from the change of location.

The work carried out virtually could also be performed at the employee’s habitual place of work with no effect on any service contract between the employer and a contractual partner in Austria.


2. An employee without a habitual place of work in Austria works in Austria using electronic media on the instructions of her/his employer. The virtual activity itself is not the only reason for sending the employee to Austria.

If an employee travels to Austria in order to carry out a virtual activity relating to a service contract, and that activity could not have been carried out to the same effect at the employee’s habitual place of work, the change of location constitutes posting or hiring-out to Austria.

  • The Austrian provisions governing posting or hiring-out of workers apply.


3. An employee who is not a citizen of an EU Member State and has a habitual place of work outside Austria works in Austria of her/his own volition using electronic media only.

If the employee works virtually in Austria on more than a short-term basis (approximately two weeks),

  • the work must be reported as a case of posting (i.e. notification must be submitted) if the employer is an undertaking established in an EU Member State;
  • a posting or employment permit must be obtained if the employer is an undertaking established in a non-EU Member State (third country).


4. A company established outside Austria hires an employee to work virtually at a habitual place of work in Austria.

The determining factor here is that the habitual place of work is in Austria, meaning that the employee has not been posted there. The place of residence or registered office of the employer’s contractual partner or the employer is irrelevant.

  • The Austrian provisions governing cross-border posting or hiring-out of workers do not apply.
  • The other provisions of Austrian labour and social security law and the provisions governing employment of third-country nationals do apply.


5. A company established outside Austria hires an employee to work virtually for a contractual partner located in Austria. The employee does not carry out this work in Austria.

For there to be a cross-border posting or hiring-out, the employee must physically change location in order to work.
A situation where an employee works from a location outside Austria for the benefit of a contractual partner in Austria is not regarded as cross-border posting or hiring-out.

  • The Austrian provisions governing cross-border posting or hiring-out of workers do not apply.
  • The law in force at the habitual place of work applies.