If foreign companies without a registered office in Austria wish to post their employees to Austria, this is known as a secondment. The work you perform as an employee is usually based on an agreement between the posting company and the company in Austria that placed the order. 

Company secondments are possible in the following cases, for example:

  • A foreign company wants to carry out a project in Austria and sends its employees to Austria for this purpose;
  • An Austrian company asks a foreign company to supply workers;
  • A company has branches in different countries and would like to lend its employees within the company.

The requirements for the secondment of employees are always as follows:

  • The employment relationship with the foreign employer remains in place;
  • The expected duration of the secondment may not exceed 24 months (in exceptional cases, a longer secondment period may be agreed upon);
  • The employees work under Austrian labour and salary conditions. 

In the case of secondment, a distinction must also be made as to whether the foreign company has its registered office 

  • in the EU/EEA, or
  • in a country outside the EEA. 

Both variants are presented below.

My employer is based in an EEA country and would like to post me to Austria

The company based in the EEA must report the posting of its workers to the Central Co-Ordinating Agency of the Federal Ministry of Finance (ZKO) before work commences (posting notification). In accordance with the EU Posted Workers Directive 96/71/EC, this notification enables the monitoring of compliance with Austrian wage and working conditions, which also apply to employees from abroad for the duration of their posting, and thus prevents wage and social dumping. 

  • If the posting lasts longer than 12 months, Austrian labour law shall apply in its entirety, insofar as it is more favourable than the labour law of the posting country.
  • The period can be extended to 18 months upon substantiated notification—either at the same time as the secondment notification or retrospectively. 


Example: You work for a Greek company and are posted to Austria by your employer. Your salary must correspond to the Austrian collective agreement and not to a typical salary in Greece.

Foreign employers must use this link to report the posting of their employees to Austria: 

  • For secondments if you are deployed to Austria by your employer to fulfil a contractual obligation (e.g. a work contract): Form ZKO3
  • For assignments if you are assigned to an employing company in Austria on the basis of an assignment contract concluded with your employer: Form ZKO4

If the company is based in an EEA state but individual workers come from third countries, the ZKO forwards the notification to the Public Employment Service (AMS). 

Info: Austria’s Public Employment Service (AMS) is the body responsible for employment services in Austria. 

In this case, the AMS checks whether employees of this nationality 

  • are duly employed in the sending state and
  • these employees are employed according to Austrian wage and working conditions during their posting. 

If this is the case, the employees may be posted, and the AMS issues a confirmation of posting. 

As the employees only work in Austria temporarily, they remain covered by social security in their country of posting. The Austrian social security institution must be informed of this. Employers in the posting country must submit the A1 form to their social security provider. See the information in the chapter on social security: A1 form.

On the posting of workers platform and the ZKO’s information page, you can find detailed information about the secondment of employees.

My employer is based in a third country and would like to post me to Austria

If employees who work for a company in a third country are to be posted to Austria for up to four months, a posting permit is required. 

If employees are to work in Austria for more than four months, they need a work permit instead. Both the posting permit and the work permit must be obtained directly from the AMS by the employee in Austria. 

Attention: Confirmation of posting (see the previous chapter), posting permit, and work permit are three different documents.

Employees from third countries also need a visa. You can find out which visa is required in the chapter on visas & residence. A visa is always required for postings, even if the posted employees are nationals who would not need a visa as tourists. For postings of more than six months, a residence permit (in this case, a residence permit for posted workers) is required. 

No posting or employment authorisation is required if workers are

  • carrying out cultural activities within the framework of intergovernmental cultural agreements;
  • sent to guest ensemble performances in theatres, provided that the guest ensemble performance does not last longer than one week. 

In such cases, Austrian organisers must only notify the workers’ employment to the regional office of the Public Employment Service (notification obligation).

Whether the activity can be regarded as employment within the framework of an international cultural agreement must be assessed on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the content of the respective cultural agreement. According to the individual cultural agreement, postings in the scientific, pedagogical, technical, or artistic fields are particularly relevant.

Example: A foreign operatic company has a guest performance at an Austrian opera house. All personnel sent to Austria as part of such a guest performance (e.g. technicians, musicians, conductors) are covered by the organiser's notification.