The 2021 Agricultural Labour Act Introduces Simplifications
The Agricultural Labour Act is being standardized: As of 1 July, the new, unified Agricultural Labour Act (LAG) 2021 comes into effect, replacing the nine federal state-specific agricultural labour regulations. The goal is to make jobs in agriculture and forestry more attractive.
With the simplification of the law, the current more than 100 regulations are being reduced to around 20. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Labour see significant need, particularly due to the planned employer cooperatives. These are labour market instruments that allow businesses within a region to join forces to employ workers and skilled personnel together. The goal is to enable attractive and sustainable employment in the seasonally-driven agriculture and forestry sectors throughout the year. This also allows synergy effects to be better utilized in the future.
The Agricultural Labour Act generally covers the legal and labour law regulations for employees in agriculture and forestry.
With LAG 2021, improved and uniform conditions are being established for the reconciliation of work and family life. Examples of legally standardized provisions include the father’s month, full crediting of parental leave toward all length-of-service-related entitlements, and the right to care leave.
New features include participation in disaster relief efforts and greater flexibility in reintegration part-time work.
“It is important that there are uniform working conditions and that injustices are now eliminated. The total of 30,000 agricultural workers perform indispensable work every day for our country and our food supply,” emphasizes Federal Minister of Agriculture Elisabeth Köstinger.
Federal Minister of Labour Martin Kocher adds that “LAG 2021 is a necessary labour market instrument that creates new employment opportunities for agriculture and forestry.”