To ensure that the rights of your colleagues on site are respected, we stand behind the works councils and youth councils and support them in their work in the company.
If you have any questions or need help, your first point of contact for you as a works council member is your responsible state secretariat.
Participation and co-creation of economic decisions on the supervisory board also means joint responsibility. Each member of the Supervisory Board is personally liable for his or her conduct in the exercise of this mandate.
In order to protect employee representatives who have been delegated to the Supervisory Board in accordance with Section 110 ArbVG against possible claims for damages, the ÖGB has taken out a group insurance policy with Wiener Städtische Versicherung AG (Vienna Insurance Group).
The sum insured is up to 200,000 euros per claim (75,000 euros for violations before 1 January 2017) and there is no deductible. The insurance cover for works councillors extends to claims asserted against them arising from their work as a supervisory board member pursuant to Section 84 of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG) or corresponding liability provisions pursuant to other laws.
Similar liability provisions exist for other forms of company that have set up a supervisory board with employee participation (Section 110 (5) of the Labour Constitution Act; Ges.m.b.H., cooperatives, ...).
Works councils that are union members and have made a notification of the secondment of employee representatives to the supervisory board to the responsible trade union secretary in the respective national organisation or to the ÖGB.
The forms are available through the betriebsraete.at website. The completed and signed form must be sent to the respective vida regional organisation or to ÖGB-Betriebsarbeit, Johann-Böhm-Platz 1, 1020 Vienna or by e-mail to betriebsarbeit@oegb.at .
In the event of legal challenges, employee representatives must immediately inform the trade union and Wiener Städtische Versicherung and provide all relevant information. A cover commitment from the insurance company is required and the choice of a lawyer requires their approval.
Contact your vida country organisation or the vida Business & International Affairs Office by e-mail wirtschaft@vida.at.
You can find interesting brochures or further training opportunities on the website of the Institute for Supervisory Board Co-Determination (IFAM)
Please send the completed form to your vida country organization.
We support you with difficult decisions or major operational changes. Get in touch with your vida country organisation – if necessary, we will also put you in touch with our vida business experts.
The work of the works council is an honorary office. Nevertheless, you must be granted the "free time" you need to perform the tasks for the work of the works council. Such tasks include, for example:
Within your five-year term of office as a works councillor, you are also entitled to 3 weeks and 3 days of educational leave.
If the company where you work has more than 150 employees, it is possible to completely release works council members from their professional activities. They can then only work in the works council.
A significant advantage for members of a works council is the special protection against dismissal. This is necessary to ensure employee representation within a company, even if there are conflicts with the boss.
However, this does not mean that a works council can "do anything". Works council members can be dismissed or dismissed for certain serious reasons with the consent of the Labour and Social Court.
In order to fulfil your works council duties, you are granted some claims and rights under the Labour Constitution Act . You are entitled to:
Your rights as a works council member are also offset by obligations:
Yes. During a term of office, all works council members are entitled to three weeks and three days of educational leave.
If there is a special interest in a particular training, the educational leave can be extended to a maximum of five weeks.
In companies with at least 20 employees , there is an entitlement to continued payment of remuneration for these three weeks.
IMPORTANT: The works council must inform the business owners at least four weeks before the start of the training and agree with them on the time of the training.
If you have any questions or need help, please contact our experts in the state secretariats! We're here to help.
The experts in the national organisations will support you in preparing, negotiating or concluding company agreements. Get in touch with us if you have any questions!
Together with the "Tatort Arbeitsplatz" team, we have already prepared two possible company agreements for you:
In the vida Information System for Functionaries (vif), you can find out which employees in your company are unionized or members of your region/local group.
You can also quickly create the vida member you have recruited in the vif with all the necessary data and membership registration and immediately transfer it to the vida national organization.
Who can become a vif user?
You can get access as a works council chairperson or regional/local group functionary.
How do I request vif access?
Fill out the application form below and send it signed to your vida national organization. Your personal access data will then be sent to you by e-mail.
The online platform "vida Beitragsmanagement" enables you or your colleagues in payroll accounting to transmit contribution data in a simple and secure way.
Online access to vida contribution management is free of charge for you as a vida member.
Find out more here:
vida contribution management
With the "Labour Law for Works Councils" service, you as a works council member can solve labour law issues quickly and easily!
Online access to this service is free of charge for you as a vida member. This gives you a simple reference work on employment law issues.
With the Employment Law Collection, you can access current laws and regulations from the world of work - free of charge!
Online access to the Employment Law Collection is free of charge for you as a vida member. This will give you an overview of employment contract law, service law, employee protection, spin-off law and collective employment law.
Holiday and Christmas bonuses or salary and wage increases are not in the law. They are negotiated by the trade unions with the employers and laid down in collective agreements. At the ÖGB publishing house, all collective agreements concluded in Austria are collected, edited and incorporated into databases.
Access to collective agreements online is free of charge for you as a vida member.
www.kvsystem.at: the expert system
Works councils have access to over 600 collective agreements and supplementary agreements in the latest version and the versions from previous years. Access to collective agreements is free of charge for you as a vida member. Your access data of the vida website will serve as your login.
The KV portal with all KVs in Austria
At kollektivvertrag.at you will find all the important information in one place:
Preparing for a course, increasing your social skills or deepening your knowledge of a specific topic... no problem with the scripts from VÖGB and AK!
These are written by experts, didactically prepared and continuously updated.
On www.betriebsraete.at, the service portal for works councils of ÖGB and trade unions, you will find a lot of interesting information for your work as a works council or JVR.
The new web platform "KI-Starthilfe" offers works councils , staff representatives, employees and functionaries of ÖGB and trade unions a simple and practice-oriented introduction to the topic of artificial intelligence.
Why recruit members?
The greater the number of union members, the more weight the demands of the workforce and the arguments of the union have.
The membership recruitment interview
One of the most common reasons for not having filled out the membership registration form is that you have never been approached about membership.
Knowledge is power!
The vida Department of Economics & International Affairs regularly prepares short factsheets on the current economic situation, the development of inflation, employment and unemployment as well as the development of wages and salaries. This information is an important argumentation aid for collective bargaining negotiators. After all, only those who are well informed about the economic policy framework can argue better in negotiations.
Score points with vida publications
In addition, vida provides insights into selected vida industries such as tourism or the cleaning industry with the industry factsheets. With the series "Economy easily explained", frequently used terms such as "non-wage labour costs" are explained and myths are dispelled. With these publications, you are well informed about the background and can score points - whether at works meetings or at the pub table.
Here you will find many templates to get your messages as a BR to your colleagues in a targeted manner. Inform them about what they have achieved, move them to joint actions. Or introduce the BR or JVR team in a folder.
You also have the option of ordering your vida business card online. To access the online processing portal, you need a voucher code, which you can obtain from your vida national organisation .
If you need business cards right away, download the "Business Card" template in the "Business Stationery" download area and enter the desired data into the template. You only need to fill out one card, the others will be filled automatically. You can then print out your vida business card yourself.
Do you need information material about the trade union vida and the ÖGB?
In the "Media Library" section in the "Downloads" section, we offer you folders and brochures for download. For larger order quantities, please contact your vida country organization directly.
To stay up to date with us, subscribe to our vida newsletter and the vida press releases.
A voice is needed for co-determination, which must be raised in order to make oneself heard. A voice gives power and leads to change.
