The highest judges overturned the previous regulation, according to which asylum seekers were only allowed to work as seasonal workers. Kocher emphasizes that there will be no general labor market access for asylum seekers in the future either. You should only be allowed to work if the AMS cannot place unemployed people on the job.
“The decree makes it clear that asylum seekers do not have general access to the labor market. Rather, unemployed nationals as well as those entitled to asylum and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection should be given priority,” Kocher emphasized in a broadcast. This is regulated in one of the decrees available to the APA, which, according to the ministry, applies not only to regular jobs but also to apprenticeships.
The basic requirement for asylum seekers to gain access to the labor market is that they have been admitted to the asylum procedure for at least three months and that they have protection against deportation. The decree makes it clear, however, that they may only be employed after a “consistent labor market test” and after unanimous approval in the AMS regional advisory board. Specifically, the AMS is intended to provide companies that want to employ asylum seekers with replacement workers from the ranks of the existing unemployed – also on a supraregional level. “All possibilities must be exhausted in order to fill the vacancy with available nationals or foreign nationals who are integrated into the labor market,” writes Kocher.
Kocher wants to maintain “strict practice”
Applications from companies that show no willingness to employ these placed unemployed should be rejected, according to Kocher, with reference to the relevant judicature of the Administrative Court.
According to Kocher, the aim of the decree is “to maintain the previous strict practice in enforcement”. The Ministry wants the Public Employment Service to report on the results of the proceedings and the resolutions of the regional advisory board on a monthly basis.
The Constitutional Court had repealed the previous decrees that had excluded asylum seekers from access to the labor market outside the seasonal area. The decrees were too far-reaching and should have been issued as ordinances. According to the Ministry of Labor, this was not possible because the Aliens Employment Act does not provide for a corresponding statutory authorization.
