Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Austria (Ratification: 1951)

The Committee notes the observations of the Federal Chamber of Labour (BAK), received on 12 August 2019, concerning the annulment by an act of Parliament of provisions in collective agreements recognizing Good Friday as a statutory public holiday for members of the Evangelical Churches of the Augsburg and Helvetic Confessions, the Old Catholic Church and the United Methodist Church. The Committee notes that the BAK states in particular that: (i) under section 7(3) of the Rest Periods Act (ARG), Good Friday was a statutory public holiday for members of the four churches; (ii) on 22 January 2019, the European Court of Justice decided in Case C–193/17 that the Good Friday regulation represented a direct discrimination on the grounds of religion and that until the Government amends its legislation, in order to restore equal treatment, all employees are entitled to this public holiday irrespective of their religious affiliation, or to compensation, if directed to work by their employer on this day; (iii) the Government has thus decided to abolish Good Friday as a statutory public holiday; (iv) the legislation was subsequently amended in a manner that directly interferes with provisions of collective agreements that provide for a day off on Good Friday for employees who are members of one of the churches in question, rendering these provisions invalid; and (v) the decision by the Government and the legislative amendment were made without the social partners being given the opportunity to conduct talks on the collective agreements concerned and on more appropriate ways to remove the mentioned discrimination. The Committee requests the Government to provide its comments on the observations mentioned above.