Protection of older workers from dismissal relaxed
When it comes to challenging an employee's dismis¬sal on
the grounds of social incompatibility, the pro¬vision of
Section 105 (3b) of the Austrian Industrial Relations Act (ArbVG)
stipulates stricter rules to pro¬tect older workers. In their
case, special considera¬tion needs to be given to checking
whether dismissal is socially unjustified and, in balancing social
aspects, to the fact of the many years of uninterrupted
em¬ployment and the age-related difficulties to be
expec¬ted in reintegrating them in the labour market.
Un¬der current law, individuals who are aged 50+ upon being
hired enjoy such protection after completing their second year of
employment. In order to facili¬tate reintegration of
over-50-year-olds, this protec¬tion has been slightly relaxed:
an employment relati¬onship commenced on or after 1 July 2017
is no lon¬ger subject to this special provision when the
emplo¬yee is 50 years old at the time of
