NATIONAL LABOUR MARKET POLICIES
Basic Information Reports
2.3.1.1.Legal representation (chambers)
Chambers (Kammern) are self-administering public corporate bodies established under law; they have compulsory membership and their functions are legally defined.
Workers
The legal representation of the majority of workers (including the unemployed) is regulated by the Workers' Chamber Act of 1992.
Each Land has its own chamber for blue-collar workers and salaried employees and these are affiliated at federal level in the Federal Chamber of Labour.
The executive bodies of the workers' chambers are appointed by democratic election.
The workers' chambers are authorised to represent and promote the social, economic, occupational and cultural interests of the workers.
To this end, their specific mandate is to prepare reports, proposals and evaluations for legislative bodies and public authorities, to review draft bills and ordinances, to represent the workers on various bodies, to participate in administrative measures concerning the economy, to advise and to collaborate with voluntary professional associations with collective bargaining authority and with works councils, to monitor working conditions and to establish offices for the protection of apprentices and young people.
The chambers are required to advise their members in matters of labour and social law and to provide them with legal protection in the form of representation before a court of law.
Workers in agriculture and forestry are represented by agricultural workers' chambers. These are established under Land law.
Employers
The Chamber of Commerce Act regulates the legal representation of most enterprises and employers. Each Land has its own chamber of industry and trade and these are affiliated at federal level in the Austrian Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
The employers' chambers are authorised to represent the common interests of all natural persons and legal entities, business partnerships (limited commercial partnerships) and registered profit-seeking companies in their jurisdiction which operate independently in any one of the following areas of business: trade, industry, commerce, finance, banking, insurance, transport or tourism.
There are also chambers of agriculture and forestry for employers in these sectors as well as chambers for the liberal professions (e.g. for medical practitioners, lawyers, notaries, trustees, etc.).
| 
