So that there are no nasty surprises, the Chamber of Labor names three points that should be clarified before starting an internship or holiday job.
1. Employment Contract
This should be agreed in writing and include the following aspects: Exact activity, start and end of employment, working hours, remuneration, possibly board and lodging as well as the collective agreement affiliation of the company. Ideally, the contract should be checked by the Chamber of Labor before it is signed.
The Chamber of Labor points out that most (mandatory) interns or summer jobbers would be in a temporary employment relationship. But the same rules apply here as for all other employees: payment according to a collective agreement (applies to around 98% of Austrian employees) or continued payment in the event of illness. Only in exceptional cases would no collective agreement apply. In that case, the remuneration must be agreed separately.
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2. Overtime
Here, the Chamber of Labor says clearly: Overtime for young people under the age of 18 is not allowed. In addition, young people would be entitled to a daily break of at least half an hour if the total duration of the daily working time is more than 4.5 hours. Working hours should be written down and well documented.
3. Compulsory internship emergency plan
If a student is obliged to do an internship and the search is difficult, the Chamber of Labor advises: Contact the teaching staff and document the search well. Letters of application sent and the search history in job exchanges should be recorded. If the teaching staff determine – especially with the help of your documentation – that they were really looking for a job and still couldn’t find a job, the obligation can also be waived in individual cases.
