During the current summer travel season, numerous employees are facing the problem that an unexpected illness is disrupting their planned vacation. For this reason, the Austrian Trade Union Federation is currently experiencing a high number of inquiries from concerned workers seeking advice.
Under current law, statutory leave primarily serves the purpose of rest and recuperation. If this is not possible due to a physical impairment, the law stipulates, under certain conditions, that the lost leave days are not used but credited back to the leave account. However, the enforcement of these claims is subject to strict formal requirements.
According to Austrian vacation law, this regulation only applies if the illness lasts longer than three calendar days, including non-working days such as weekends. Furthermore, the employee must inform the employer of their sick leave immediately and submit a doctor's certificate upon their return without being asked. This three-day rule differs significantly from the legal provisions in other countries, such as Germany, where a single documented day of illness is sufficient to secure vacation entitlement. Critics argue that this hurdle in Austrian law often leads to ambiguities and disadvantages for employees with shorter periods of illness.
Special administrative requirements apply when an employee becomes ill during a stay abroad. While the European Health Insurance Card is sufficient for inpatient treatment in a hospital or within the European Union, employers often require additional official certification of the treating physician's license for outpatient treatment in third countries. Labor lawyers consider this bureaucratic burden outdated, as obtaining such documentation abroad places a considerable strain on acutely ill individuals. Furthermore, the agreed-upon vacation is not automatically extended by the number of days of sick leave; the employee must return to work on the originally scheduled date.
The strict documentation requirements regularly lead to labor disputes in everyday work life, especially when sick leave notifications are not verifiable or arrive late at the employer's office. Experts therefore recommend always submitting sick leave notifications in writing via email, despite the permissibility of informal channels such as messenger services, in order to be able to present clear evidence in case of a dispute. While employee organizations are calling for a simplification of the documentation rules, employer associations point to the need for control mechanisms to prevent the misuse of vacation entitlements.