After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU activated the Mass Influx Directive. In addition to a temporary residence status for displaced persons from Ukraine, this also gives them access to national labor markets such as those in Austria. The directive has been implemented here since March 2022. Relief has now been announced for the second quarter. Displaced persons should then be treated on an equal footing with Austrians and EU citizens and be allowed to take any job.
In the future, all Ukrainian refugees who have been issued an IDP (“Blue Card”) will be exempted from the Law on the Employment of Foreigners, the Labor Ministry announced. Then they can immediately take on any job without a work permit. Displaced persons are therefore subject to the same rules as Austrian citizens and people from EU partner countries.
“After the parliamentary procedure is completed, the amendment is expected to come into force in the second quarter of 2023,” the Ministry of Labor said in a statement. “Until then, a work permit is still required.” The aim is “an even faster start of work and also employment in the temporary worker and by means of a service check”. Displaced persons are then registered as unemployed with the AMS. This will lead to slightly higher unemployment upon entry into force.
Access to the labor market will be further restricted in bureaucracy
Until now or for the time being, a work permit can be issued for all sectors in a simplified procedure without a labor market test after the Blue Card has been issued by the Ministry of the Interior. This is usually within a business day or two. From a Department of Labor point of view, the benefit here, especially in the beginning, was that there is oversight – among other things, to ensure fair wages and working conditions by the AMS. However, the preconditions have now become clearer and further advisory mechanisms have been put in place, so that access to the labor market can be further bureaucratically restricted.
Until now, a work permit for temporary workers and for household services in private households via a service check was not possible. That should change, because according to the Ministry of Labour, experience in Germany shows that posting workers is often the first step into the labor market. With the intended “reduction of bureaucracy”, the Ministry of Labor and Economic Affairs is taking an important step “to enable even faster employment”. More displaced people should find work and therefore prospects.
Kocher: “The labor market is open to displaced persons”
“A year after the start of the Russian offensive war in Ukraine, we remain determined to support displaced persons who want to work in Austria with the means at our disposal,” said Minister of Labor and Economic Affairs Martin Kocher (ÖVP). “The now completely free access to the labor market is a further sign that the Austrian labor market is open to people expelled from Ukraine.”
At the end of December 2022, 13,546 Ukrainians were employed in Austria. An increase of nearly 8,200 over the year through the Displaced Persons Scheme more than doubled. In general, the workforce is well integrated. According to the Ministry of Labor, there are no known systematic violations of labor and social law by employers.
Source: Krone
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