die sterreichische Film Commission

This agreement covers, for example, the director, the assistant director, the production manager, location manager, director of photography, costume designer, make-up artist, sound engineers, etc. The CBA is applicable, inside and outside Austrian territory, to all work contracts between audio-visual and film production companies (to the extent that they are members of the labor union) and their employees (no matter which nationality).

CBAs do not apply to members of the board of directors, directors, general managers or senior executives, as well as interns, volunteers, (actors) and extras. Both, time-limited and openended work contracts are subject to CBAs.

Work times

A normal work week in Austria consists of a total of 40 hours between Monday and Friday. It can be arranged otherwise by company agreement or, if no employee council exists, by individual agreement. A normal work day consists of eight hours between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., but can be extended to nine hours. Daily repose amounts to 11 hours. In addition, there are exact regulations concerning scheduled shooting days which are later cancelled or delayed.

Considering certain legal provisions, a blanket agreement can be reached for project-related, time-limited work contracts regarding weekly work hours (40 hours per week between Monday and Friday) plus, up to an additional two hours per day in addition to the normal work day, plus, up to ten hours on Saturdays between 10 am and 10 pm which can bring up the weekly total to 60 hours.

Furthermore, CBAs precisely regulate wages, compensation for overtime, weekend and holiday work as well as vacation time and night work.

The CBA for non-film-makers

The work contract

Persons with a proper work contract are not subject to the terms and conditions set out in the CBA. Within the framework of a work contract, liability is limited either to the work itself or a specified success (in the legal sense of this term) – as opposed to service contracts, under which employees are not liable for success, but rather hired for a continuos activity or function. Work contract activities generally consist of independent work to be essentially carried out at the employee’s own liability. To this extent, the employee is neither directly integrated in the company, nor (solely) financially dependent on it, and independent of directives. Upon completion of the work or achievement of the success, the legal relationship dissolves automatically.