Unpaid trainees

General information

Volunteers are people who work in a business with the sole purpose of enhancing and applying their (mostly) theoretical knowledge, without an obligation to work and without remuneration (e.g. pocket money). If remuneration is given, then an employment relationship exists.

The following are typical of voluntary service, for example:

• No commitment to a specific activity
• The apprenticeship predominantly benefits the volunteer.
• These are people who, thanks to their educational background or completed training, are already theoretically competent in performing the respective role but want to expand their acquired knowledge in practice.

This category of persons shall only be partially covered by accident insurance.

Real volunteers, in line with the explanations above, shall register directly with the Austrian Workers' Compensation Board (Allgemeine Unfallversicherungsanstalt – AUVA) for insurance.

Further links

• Brochure "Legal situation for work placement trainees in Austria" (→ BMSGPK)^{German text}
• Unpaid trainee (→ WKO)^{German text}
• Practice guidelines for work placement trainees (→ ÖGK)^{German text}
• Work for children and young people (→ Work Inspectorate)^{German text}
• Brochure "Young people – Employment of children and young people" (→ BMSGPK)^{German text}
• General Accident Insurance Institution (→ AUVA)^{German text}