In a rapid policy U-turn, Austria’s Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has ordered the Public Employment Service (AMS) to resume renewing work permits for asylum seekers whose initial refugee applications were rejected but are still under appeal. The ministry’s written instruction, issued late last week and confirmed on 5 October 2026, reverses a June amendment to the Aliens’ Employment Act that had cut off roughly 1,400 working asylum seekers – many of them in manufacturing and hospitality – from the labour market. Employers had warned of acute skills shortages, while legal experts argued that the restriction violated the EU Reception Conditions Directive that is now part of the new EU Asylum & Migration Pact. Under the June rules the AMS had refused to prolong time-limited permissions once an applicant received a negative decision from the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA). The social ministry now concedes that the measure will probably be struck down by Austria’s Constitutional Court or the EU Court of Justice and therefore tells the AMS to treat all “transition cases” as if the old regime were still in force. Existing permits remain valid; new applications by people who lodged their first asylum claim after 12 June will be put on hold until higher-court clarification. The climb-down brings immediate relief to employers in Upper Austrian industrial clusters and the Tyrolean tourism belt, where asylum-seeker employees fill hard-to-staff jobs. The Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKO) welcomed the decision but demanded “durable legal certainty” so that companies can plan staffing and compliance processes. Several firms told the Standard they had already prepared redundancy letters and now must reverse course. For multinational companies that second staff to Austrian subsidiaries or rely on shared-service centres in Vienna, the episode underscores the fluidity of Austria’s immigration rules in the first year of the EU Asylum Pact. Mobility managers should monitor forthcoming rulings: if courts confirm that appeal-stage applicants must have labour-market access, Parliament will have to rewrite the Aliens’ Employment Act, potentially opening a more predictable pathway to tap refugee talent. Practically, HR departments should: (1) double-check the validity date on existing Beschäftigungsbewilligungen; (2) keep documentary proof that renewal requests were submitted before the June cut-off; and (3) anticipate possible AMS backlogs once new guidance for post-June cases is issued. Companies planning winter-season staffing in tourism should also budget extra lead-time for local Labour Market tests once the freeze on fresh permits is lifted.
Source: Der Standard
