Staff scheduling in Austria

Staff scheduling (Dienstplanung) means assigning employees to shifts: who works when, where and on which task. It brings together the business’s staffing needs, the team’s contracts, qualifications and absences, and the rules of labour law. In Austria those are above all the Working Time Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, AZG), the Rest Periods Act (Arbeitsruhegesetz, ARG), for young workers the Employment of Children and Young Persons Act (KJBG), for pregnant employees the Maternity Protection Act (Mutterschutzgesetz, MSchG), and the applicable collective agreement (Kollektivvertrag).

Schedule, shift plan, workforce planning

The terms are often used interchangeably but mean different things:

• The staff schedule (Dienstplan) is the result: the binding assignment for a period, usually a week or a month.
• A shift plan (Schichtplan) is a schedule in businesses with fixed shifts, such as early, late and night shifts.
• Workforce planning (Personaleinsatzplanung) is the umbrella term. It also covers the medium-term question of how many people with which qualifications are needed at all.
• Staff scheduling (Dienstplanung) is the ongoing process in between: matching demand and availability, assigning shifts, checking, announcing and following up on changes.

Austria is not Germany

Many scheduling guides come from Germany and cite the German Working Hours Act (ArbZG) or Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act (TzBfG). Businesses in Austria are bound by different rules. The most important differences:

What the law requires of every schedule

Working time: normal hours and maximum limits

Normal working time is at most 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week (§ 3 AZG). Many collective agreements set less; in retail it is 38.5 hours. Including overtime, a working day may not exceed 12 hours and a working week 60 hours. Where more than 48 hours a week are allowed, the average over 17 weeks may not exceed 48 hours; the collective agreement may extend this period (§ 9 AZG).

For shops, the AZG allows averaging: within a four-week period, normal working time may reach up to 44 hours in individual weeks if the average does not exceed 40 hours or the collectively agreed normal working time. Normal working time stays limited to 9 hours a day (§ 4 (4) AZG).

Part-timers who work beyond their agreed hours work additional hours (Mehrarbeit). These carry a 25 per cent supplement unless they are balanced 1:1 with time off within the calendar quarter (or another fixed three-month period) in which they arose. Further exceptions apply to flexitime and to collectively agreed normal hours below 40, and the collective agreement may deviate (§ 19d (3a) to (3f) AZG).

In eutempus: The 12-hour daily limit is a hard rule. The optimiser plans weekly hours along the contracts and can even out time balances over the weeks. eutempus does not check the weekly limits of 60 hours and 48 hours on average separately.

Breaks and rest periods

Anyone working more than 6 hours a day is entitled to a break of at least half an hour. It may be split into two breaks of 15 minutes or three of 10 minutes if this is in the employees’ interest or necessary for operational reasons; where there is a works council, it must agree (§ 11 AZG).

Between the end of one working day and the start of the next there must be at least 11 consecutive hours of rest (Ruhezeit, § 12 AZG). A collective agreement may shorten this to as little as 8 hours; the shortfall must be made up within ten calendar days. The retail collective agreement uses this option for individual cases.

On top of that comes the weekend rest (Wochenendruhe): 36 consecutive hours including Sunday, starting at the latest at 1 pm on Saturday (§ 3 ARG). Anyone scheduled to work during the weekend rest period is instead entitled to 36 hours of weekly rest that include a whole weekday (§ 4 ARG). In shops, work on Saturdays after 1 pm is allowed as far as opening hours permit (§ 22f ARG). Shops may open Monday to Friday between 6 am and 9 pm and on Saturday between 6 am and 6 pm, for at most 72 hours a week (§ 4 Opening Hours Act); the state governors may allow extensions by regulation (§ 4a Opening Hours Act).

Worked examples and the overtime rules are in the guide Working hours and rest periods.

In eutempus: eutempus checks the 11 hours of rest between shifts on consecutive days within the schedule and flags shortfalls as a soft-rule violation. Breaks are set in the template directly with the shifts; they are not checked separately.

When the schedule has to be fixed

The central rule for staff scheduling in Austria is § 19c AZG. In principle, the timing of working hours, meaning when someone works, has to be agreed. The employer may only set or change it unilaterally if all four conditions are met:

1. There are objective reasons that lie in the nature of the work.
2. The working hours for each week are communicated at least two weeks in advance.
3. No legitimate interests of the employee stand in the way.
4. No agreement says otherwise.

The two-week notice may be shortened in unforeseeable cases where a disproportionate economic loss would otherwise occur and other measures are not reasonable. In addition, collective agreements and works agreements may set different rules for the specific needs of an activity (§ 19c (3) AZG). The same applies to part-timers (§ 19d (2) AZG). The retail collective agreement requires changing hours to be agreed at least two weeks in advance for each week.

In practice this means: the schedule for a week should be fixed at least two weeks beforehand. A later unilateral change needs the agreement of those affected, except in unforeseeable cases (§ 19c (3) AZG) or where your collective agreement or works agreement provides otherwise. In detail: Changing the schedule: the two-week rule.

Young workers and apprentices

For employees under 18 the KJBG applies instead of the AZG, with considerably tighter limits:

• Working time: at most 8 hours a day and 40 a week. With a different distribution or averaging, at most 9 hours a day and 45 in individual weeks (§ 11 KJBG).
• Vocational school: time at vocational school (Berufsschule) counts towards weekly working time. After at least 8 hours of lessons, no work in the business is allowed on the same day (§ 11 (5) and (7) KJBG).
• No overtime in the usual sense: only young workers over 16 may work half an hour longer a day for preparatory and closing work, at most 3 hours a week and never more than 9.5 hours a day (§ 12 KJBG).
• Break: over 4.5 hours at least 30 minutes (§ 15 KJBG).
• Rest period: at least 12 hours between two working days (§ 16 KJBG).
• Night rest: no work between 8 pm and 6 am (§ 17 KJBG).
• Sundays and public holidays are work-free (§ 18 KJBG), and every week includes two consecutive free calendar days including Sunday (§ 19 KJBG).
• Saturdays in retail: if young workers in a shop work on a Saturday after 1 pm, the following Saturday stays entirely free (§ 19a KJBG), with exceptions such as the Saturdays before Christmas.

With examples on vocational school and Saturdays in retail: Apprentices and young workers in the schedule.

In eutempus: Employees under 18 have their own daily limit (9 hours by default, adjustable) and a weekly limit equal to their contracted hours, with no planned extra hours. In areas where apprentices may not work alone, eutempus makes sure a fully trained colleague is on duty too.

Pregnant and breastfeeding employees

Expectant and breastfeeding mothers may not work beyond the statutory or collectively agreed daily normal working time, and never more than 9 hours a day or 40 a week (§ 8 MSchG). Night work between 8 pm and 6 am is prohibited (§ 6 MSchG), as is work on Sundays and public holidays, apart from exceptions set out in the act (§ 7 MSchG). In the last eight weeks before birth and the eight weeks after, employment is prohibited, at least twelve weeks after premature, multiple or caesarean births (§§ 3, 5 MSchG). More in Maternity protection in the schedule.

In eutempus: During the recorded period, eutempus limits working time to 9 hours a day and 40 a week. You enter the employment ban around the birth as an absence.

Collective agreement and works agreement

The collective agreement of your sector settles what the law leaves open or permits: normal working time, averaging periods, supplements and often rules of its own for Saturdays. In retail this is the Schwarz-Weiß rule: whoever works on a Saturday after 1 pm has the following Saturday entirely off. Exceptions apply, among others, to the four Saturdays before Christmas. Instead of the basic rule, a business may agree models such as block time off (Blockfreizeit). Since 1 January 2026, retail employees may waive their free Saturday at their own request: by works agreement or with the works council’s consent in each case, without a works council by a written individual agreement. Time off in lieu must be agreed, and the waiver can be revoked in writing with two months’ notice. All Saturday models and the 2026 changes: Retail collective agreement.

There is no nationwide collective agreement for doctors’ practices (Ordinationen). The collective agreements for employees of doctors are concluded per federal state and differ, for example, in the earliest start and latest end of the working day. Only employees of dentists have a nationwide collective agreement.

A works agreement (Betriebsvereinbarung) can set further rules within this framework, for example on averaging or splitting breaks.

Records and fines

Employers must keep records of the hours worked (§ 26 AZG). If working hours are fixed in writing, it is enough to confirm that they were kept and to record deviations as they happen.

Anyone who fails to respect maximum hours, breaks or rest periods risks fines of 72 to 1,815 euros, 145 to 1,815 euros for a repeat offence. In a repeat case, 218 to 3,600 euros apply if the maximum hours were exceeded by more than 20 per cent or the rest period was shorter than 8 hours (§ 28 AZG). Where records are missing and actual working time can then not be established, a separate fine is imposed for each employee affected (§ 28 (8) AZG).

Creating a staff schedule in six steps

1. Determine demand. Opening or surgery hours, customer traffic and the minimum staffing per area and qualification: how many people are needed at which hour?
2. Set the framework. Contracts and weekly hours, collective agreement, averaging periods and arrangements such as day patterns or free half-days.
3. Collect availability. Leave, sick leave, vocational school days, preferred and blocked days.
4. Assign shifts. Qualification matching the shift, hours matching the contract, Saturdays and unpopular shifts shared fairly.
5. Check. Maximum hours, breaks, rest periods, the limits for young workers and pregnant employees, the Saturday rules of the collective agreement.
6. Announce in time. At least two weeks before the week in question, with changes documented and the people affected informed.

Every step with examples and typical mistakes is explained in Creating a staff schedule.

Spreadsheet or scheduling software?

For a small team with fixed shifts a spreadsheet can be enough. The more part-timers, apprentices, locations and special rules come in, the more the real work lies in steps 4 and 5: every change shifts something else, and whether all rules are kept is known only to whoever recalculated everything in their head.

Good scheduling software for Austrian businesses should:

• know Austrian labour law, not German, and let you configure collective-agreement details,
• show rule violations before the schedule is published,
• propose the schedule at the push of a button instead of merely managing it,
• keep leave, absences and shift swaps in one place,
• distribute the finished schedule by app, PDF or notice board,
• keep data in the EU and be transparent for the works council.

In eutempus: The optimiser builds the schedule from the template, contracts and availability. As hard rules it checks qualifications, absences and availability, the 12-hour limit, the hour limits for young workers and pregnant employees and the retail Saturday rotation; it checks the 11-hour rest period as a soft rule and flags shortfalls. Not checked automatically are the weekly limits of 60 and on average 48 hours, breaks, the weekend rest under the ARG, for young workers night rest, Sunday and public-holiday rest, the two free days, vocational school times and the free Saturday under § 19a KJBG, the night and Sunday work ban in maternity protection and the two-week notice. These remain part of your review.

Staff scheduling by sector

• Grocery retail: long opening hours, Saturday rules, apprentices and floaters between stores. More in Retail staff scheduling.
• Doctors’ practices: surgery hours in morning and afternoon blocks, reception and assistance, collective agreements per federal state. More in Staff scheduling for medical practices.
• Bank branches: one team for several locations, morning and afternoon shifts, counter and reception staffed at every location.

Sources

1. Working Time Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, AZG), RIS, current version (German)
2. § 19c AZG: timing of normal working hours, RIS (German)
3. Rest Periods Act (Arbeitsruhegesetz, ARG), RIS, current version (German)
4. Employment of Children and Young Persons Act (KJBG), RIS, current version (German)
5. Maternity Protection Act (Mutterschutzgesetz, MSchG), RIS, current version (German)
6. Opening Hours Act 2003 (Öffnungszeitengesetz), RIS, current version (German)
7. Collective agreement for retail employees and apprentices, as of 1 January 2026 (GPA, German)
8. Collective agreements for employees of doctors, per federal state (GPA, German)
9. German Working Hours Act (ArbZG), for comparison
10. § 12 German Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act: on-call work