Labour market regulations

Sole traders

There are no restrictions for sole traders who provide services themselves. No work permit is required.

Please note

If the economic or personal dependency of the service provider on the contracting company is predominant, then the activity is not carried out on a self-employed basis. That constitutes a position similar to that of an employee or an employment relationship. The posting of workers from an EU or EEA Member State must be notified.

Employees

A company posting occurs when foreign employers without a company headquarters in Austria send their workers to employers with a company headquarters in Austria to fulfil a contractual obligation (in particular a contract for work).

Notifying the Central Coordinating Agency

Companies with headquarters in an EU or EEA Member State must notify the company posting to the Central Coordinating Agency (ZKO) of the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Forwarding to the Public Employment Service

The ZKO forwards the notification to the Public Employment Service if the workers posted by a company with its place of business in an EU or EEA Member State come from third countries (countries which do not belong to the EEA^{German text}, with the exception of Switzerland).

Issuing an EU posting confirmation

For third country nationals employed bay a company with its place of business in an EU or EEA Member State, the Public Employment Service issues an EU posting confirmation if:

the posted worker is properly employed in the sending country and carries out their main activity there; and
Austrian wage and working conditions are respected and Austrian social security regulations are observed during the posting.

Further links

Form

Notification of a posting to Austria – form ZKO 3 (→ formularservice.gv.at)^{German text}

Legal basis

Directive on the posting of worker (→ EC)

Translated by the European Commission

Last update: 1 January 2024

Responsible for the content: Federal Ministry of Labour and Economy