Technology And Business In Austria

Brief history

Austria was conquered by the Celts, Romans, Lombards, Huns, Bavarians, Goths, French, Germans, and Babenberg. They dominated the country from the 10th to the 13th century. Their successors were the Habsburg who governed the country up to the 20th century.

In 1806 the Austrian Empire was founded. The Empire was dismantled with the Napoleonic wars. After Napoleon’s abdication, the House of Habsburg recovered most of its territories. In 1918 the Habsburg Empire was dissolved after its defeat in World War One. That same year the German Austria state was declared. One month later the German-Austrian Republic was proclaimed.

The first Republican government was headed by the socialist Karl Renner in 1918. In 1932, Engelbert Dollfuss’s Christian-Social government confronted social democracy and Nazism. In 1938 German troops invaded Austria. In 1945 Austria was divided in 4 zones after Hitler’s fall. Austria’s Second Republic was governed by conservatives and socialists.

Austria regained full independence in 1955. In 1994 Austria became a European Union member.

Cultural Differences: American vs. Austrian

When talking about the Austrian culture, people often think about their music. Austria has been the birthplace of many famous composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert. Eighteenth and nineteenth century composers were drawn to the city due to the patronage of the Habsburgs, and made Vienna the European capital of classical music. While the most influential parts of American music to the world are Jazz and Pop.

Austria also has a different social value from that of America. The Austrian families are generally small and, due to lack of migration, generally closely knit within a certain town or village, while American people may travel and migrate more among states. Meanwhile, Austrian people are probably more conservative than American people.

Immigration Issues Associated with Austria

The application for an Austrian work permit must be submitted in German, so translations should be taken into both time and financial budgets. Once the application has been lodged, processing usually takes about 7 weeks. When the work permit is approved the candidate must apply for a residence visa to travel to Austria and start work.

Border issues and the geographical size of Austria

Austria is a largely mountainous country due to its location in the Alps. Its neighbor countries are Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, and Slovakia.

Austria has a total area of 83872 kmÐ'І, which is 1.9 % of the total area of the EU.

Role of the government in business

The government nationalized many of the country's largest firms in the early post-war period to protect them from Soviet takeover as war reparations. For many years, the government and its state-owned industries conglomerate played a very important role in the Austrian economy. However, starting in the early 1990s, the group broke apart, state-owned firms started to operate largely as private businesses, and the government wholly or partially privatized many of these firms. Although the government's privatization work in past years has been very successful, it still operates some firms, state monopolies, utilities, and services. The SchÐ"јssel government's privatization program further reduced government participation in the economy. The Gusenbauer government will not reverse privatizations, but does not plan to undertake any further privatizations.

Labor unions, work week and vacation time

The Austrian Trade Union Federation or Austrian Federation of Trade Unions (OeGB or Ð"-GB) is a socialist-dominated labor union of employees in Austria. It comprises constituent unions with a total membership of about 1.2 million--about 31% of the country's wage and salary earners. 1 The Austrian Trade Union Federation is constituted as an association and is subdivided into nine smaller affiliated trade unions.

The law limits standard working hours to eight hours per day and up to 40 hours per week. The standard workday may be extended to 10 hours as long as the weekly maximum is not exceeded. The law limits overtime to five hours per week. Workers in Austria get 35 days vacation time and 42 days for elderly employees.

Working Conditions

One of the most cherished principles in the founding of EU Treaty is the free movement of workers. Indeed, every EU citizen has the right to freely live, look for a job, work, and retire in any Member State of the European Union.

Working in Austria is really not very different from working abroad in any part of Europe. There are certain to be some cultural differences, but for the most part it will be a similar experience to what people are used to in their home country. Austria is actually somewhat well known for its traditional work environment that does not leave much for employees to be upset about.

Job security is something that many foreigner workers worry about when they move to Austria to live and work. There is no need to worry though as they will be well protected by the law. In fact, Austria has some of the strictest laws in Europe in regards to the protection of employees.

Corporate Tax Rate

Corporate income tax rate is 34% at a flat rate. This applies to non-resident corporations. Corporations are subjected to unlimited tax liability and will have to pay the minimum corporate income tax (MCT) regardless if profitable or not. This MCT amounts to €3,500 per annum for joint stock companies or €1,750 for limited liability companies.

Languages in Austria

German is the official language spoken by majority of the population as mother tongue. It accounts for (88.6%). Other minority languages include Turkish (2.3%), Serbian (2.2%) and Croatian (official in Burgenland 1.6%), and others include Slovene and Hungarian (5.3%). These figures are based on census of 2001. Foreign languages, mostly English, are generally spoken for conducting businesses.

Obstacles in Language

The European Union has been operating in 23 official languages since new member states joined the legislative body in recent years. In order to work in EU countries, people are advised to learn