Guide
Maternity protection in the schedule
Expectant and breastfeeding mothers in Austria are subject to strict limits on working time, night work and Sundays. What the Maternity Protection Act requires of the schedule.
General information, not legal advice. The law, your collective agreement and your works agreement prevail.
The Maternity Protection Act (Mutterschutzgesetz, MSchG) protects expectant and breastfeeding mothers at work. Four rules matter for the schedule: at most 9 hours a day and 40 a week, no work between 8 pm and 6 am, no work on Sundays and public holidays, and the employment ban before and after birth.
At most 9 hours a day, 40 a week
Expectant and breastfeeding mothers may not be employed beyond the statutory or collectively agreed daily normal working time. In no case may daily working time exceed 9 hours or weekly working time 40 hours (§ 8 MSchG). Overtime is therefore excluded.
No work between 8 pm and 6 am
Expectant and breastfeeding mothers may not be employed from 8 pm to 6 am (§ 6 MSchG). Exceptions up to 10 pm exist only for certain areas, for example transport, performances, nursing staff in hospitals, care and welfare institutions, and businesses with several shifts, in each case followed by at least 11 hours of rest. Retail has no exception of its own.
In retail this means: if the shop is open until 9 pm, a late shift until closing time is only permitted for a pregnant employee if the multi-shift exception applies. Check with the labour inspectorate whether it does in your case.
No work on Sundays and public holidays
Expectant and breastfeeding mothers may generally not be employed on Sundays and public holidays (§ 7 MSchG). The act has exceptions, among others for hospitality, for businesses where the weekly rest for the entire workforce falls on a weekday, under certain conditions for small businesses with at most five employees, and for women who already worked exclusively at weekends and on public holidays before reporting the pregnancy. Anyone working on a Sunday under these exceptions is entitled to 36 hours of rest in the following week, after public-holiday work to 24 hours, in each case including a whole weekday.
Employment ban before and after birth
In the last eight weeks before the expected birth, expectant mothers may not be employed (§ 3 MSchG). After the birth an employment ban of eight weeks applies, at least twelve weeks after premature, multiple or caesarean births (§ 5 MSchG).
How to apply maternity protection in the schedule
- Record the period from which the protective rules apply, and take the breastfeeding period into account after the birth.
- Plan shifts no longer than daily normal working time, never over 9 hours, and limit the week to at most 40 hours, without overtime.
- No shifts after 8 pm and none before 6 am unless a statutory exception applies.
- No Sunday or public-holiday shifts unless a statutory exception applies.
- Enter the employment ban before and after birth as an absence.
In eutempus: During the recorded period, eutempus limits working time to 9 hours a day and 40 a week; both limits are hard rules. Enter the employment ban around the birth as an absence, and no shifts are assigned in that period. eutempus does not check the ban on night, Sunday and public-holiday work separately.