Austria - Collective agreements for freelancers possible from 2026 - August 31, 2025

From 1 January 2026, collective agreements will also be permitted for freelancers. The trade union vida sees this as an important milestone in the fight against precarious employment relationships – especially in the booming platform economy. There are around 14,000 freelancers in the country who, although they work in a similar way to employees, have so far not been able to enjoy minimum labour standards. They had no right to paid vacation, special payments, or continued sick pay – and there was no established minimum wage. With the new legal situation, vida believes it will be able to negotiate collective agreements on wages, vacation, working hours, and sick leave for freelancers in the future.

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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.