Public holidays in Austria, 2014

How Austria public holidays work in 2014

Austria recognises thirteen public holidays under the Feiertagsruhegesetz 1957 and the Arbeitsruhegesetz. The list is heavily Catholic: Epiphany, Easter Monday, Ascension, Whit Monday, Corpus Christi, Assumption, All Saints', Immaculate Conception and Saint Stephen's Day join the civic May Day and National Day on 26 October and the universal Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Good Friday is a public holiday only for members of the Protestant Augsburg and Helvetic Confessions, the Old Catholic Church and the Methodist Church by section 7 of the 1957 Act, a unique partial-holiday rule. State Treaty Day on 26 October replaced the older Flag Day in 1965 to commemorate the 1955 declaration of permanent neutrality.

Working days in Austria

Austrian civil law uses Werktag, any day except Sunday and a public holiday, with Saturday included. The Arbeitszeitgesetz sets a 40-hour standard week and the Arbeitsruhegesetz mandates an uninterrupted 36-hour weekly rest period normally including Sunday. The Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO) sections 222 and 902 roll procedural deadlines falling on a Saturday, Sunday, public holiday or Good Friday to the next working day, the only legal context in which Good Friday is universally treated as non-working. Settlement of euro transactions follows TARGET2; domestic banking observes the Oesterreichische Nationalbank's calendar mirroring the national list.