International labour law and membership of Austria to EC

The project is divided into two parts. The first part is an investigation into the Austrian international labour law excluding the modification caused by the application of Austria to the EC. The investigation includes decisions of courts and statements of jurists and should take into consideration the peculiarities of Austrian labour law. The second part is the investigation of modifications of Austrian international labour law caused by the application of Austria to the EC. Especially the modifications of Austrian international labour law caused by the decree NR 1408/71 will have to be investigated. In this part the project will especially analyze the effects of the two decisions in the case "Paletta" at the European Court, the effects of regulation N o 96/71/EC and the modifications of Austrian civil law caused by special rules concerning claims for compensation of insurance companies for social security. An essential part of the project is the investigation of decisions of courts and statements of`jurists in Austria and the comparison of international labour law in Austrian with international labour law in Germany. The conclusions of the investigations should be verified on cases.

After joining the European Community in 1995 the Republic of Austria was obliged to introduce an European integrated conflict law in the domain of contracts. In Austria international law was regulated in the International Private Law Statute (IPRG) before the EEC Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations of 1980 (EVUe) entered into force. The aim of the project was to investigate the changes to the former legal position. As the EVUe does not react to labour contracts signed before the 1st of December 1998 (Article 17), and the IPRG is still applicable to those contracts, a broad discussion of the former legal position has been necessary. The determination of the national law applicable to international labour relationships or contracts is a very significant matter, the free movement of workers (Art 39 EGV) and the right of establishment (Article 43 EGV) contributing to its importance. After a short introduction to conflicts law, chapter two deals with the former legal position. In this context, the numerous problems and questions arising from the difficult situation will not only be presented but also commented and discussed in detail. Chapter three focuses on the differences between the former legal position and the present situation. Taking into account the precept of integrated interpretation, the Articles 6 "labour contracts and labour relationships of single persons" and 7 "absolute norms" are interpreted. As the court of justice of the European Community (EuGH) cannot yet practise its competence of interpretation, which has been handed over to the EuGH by the interpretation protocols, there has been made a substantial contribution to the standardisation of the right, which is one aim of the EEC Convention. The most significant differences can be summarised as follows: The parties of labour contract can now choose any law conclusively. Article 6 contains an "escape Clause" (Ausweichklausel). If the conditions as a whole show that the contract rather corresponds to the law of another country, the contract is governed by this law. In contrast to the former legal position the EVUe expressively regulates the treatment of interventionist norms in Article 7. The transnational delegation of employees to the production of services represents a phenomenon far spread in the EU today. If the measureless service freedom certainly brings substantial advantages for the employers, it is on the other side also connected with sociopolitical problems not to be underestimated. On account of the different economic power of the EU-governments as well as on account of the frequently very differently designed labour legislation and social legislation the expenses attacking to the factor work often differ substantially. This enables offerers from so-called low-wage countries to provide their services in so-called high wage countries to a more positive price than this is possible for the offerers resident there. To counteract to this phenomenon called "social dumping", the "Posted Workers Directive" which intends the observance of certain fewest work and employment conditions of the admission state by the delegators of employees was passed by European legislation. In Austria the "Posted Workers Directive" was transformed into national lax particularly by amendments to the AVRAG and to the AÜG. After an introduction to the service freedom of 49 EGV as a basis for the employee`s delegation, the work deals with the content of the "Posted Workers Direcitve" as well as with its conversion by the AVRAG and the AÜG. In addition, existing contradicitions between the Austrian legal situation and the "Posted Workers Directive" are displayed.