Austria consolidates Foreign Employment Act, tightening compliance rules for hiring non-EU nationals

Austria’s Federal Legal Information System (RIS) has published a new consolidated version of the Foreign Employment Act (Ausländer­beschäftigungs­gesetz – AuslBG). Although most of the substantive amendments passed Parliament in the spring, the official compilation dated 28 April 2026 only became the binding reference text on 15 July 2026 after the Federal Chancellery completed the legal clean-up procedure. The re-issued text brings together more than 50 separate amending statutes passed since 1975, including the 2026 labour-market package that raised quotas for the Red-White-Red Card, aligned definitions with the EU-wide Asylum and Migration Management Regulation and, crucially, overhauled the sanction regime for illegal employment. Fines for companies that engage third-country nationals without the correct permit now start at €2,500 per person (previously €1,000) and can reach €50,000 for repeat offences. The law also introduces a graded “warning notice” procedure that allows first-time administrative errors to be corrected within 14 days before a penalty is issued. For employers, the biggest practical change is the obligation to keep copies of every employee’s work authorisation—whether Red-White-Red Card, EU Blue Card, ICT permit or family derivative—on file for five years and to present them immediately during Labour Inspectorate spot checks. HR teams must therefore review their document-retention processes and make sure that digital personnel files are complete. Failure to do so can trigger fines even if the worker is legally employed. International assignees will benefit from clearer portability rules: time spent on a Red-White-Red Card can now be combined with time on an EU Blue Card to reach the 21-month threshold for a Red-White-Red-Card plus, which grants open labour-market access. The amendments also transpose EU Directive 2024/1348, guaranteeing equal treatment in working conditions and social security. Legal practitioners expect the stricter penalties to increase due-diligence requirements in supply-chain contracts. Austrian clients are already demanding proof of compliance from foreign service providers, and large construction projects have started to insist on on-site badge checks. Companies that rely on seasonal or project-based foreign labour should budget extra time for permit applications and consider appointing a dedicated compliance officer. In the medium term, the re-codification is seen as a stepping stone towards the government’s promised “one-stop platform” where employers will be able to file work-permit applications, social-security registrations and wage tax declarations through a single online portal. The platform is scheduled to launch in pilot form in Q1 2027.