Company pension plans

At WU - as at all Austrian universities - there is an occupational pension scheme in addition to the statutory pension insurance.

Accordingly, WU has to pay employer contributions to the Valida pension fund for all employees who have been already employed at WU for two years (with the exception of civil servant employees who fall under the occupational pension scheme of the state pension fund). Details on our pension fund model can be found below in the information material.

Employees have three choices at enrolment (i.e. at the end of the 2nd year of employment): A model without increased risk protection, a model with increased risk protection, and a Life Cycle Model. In this Life Cycle Model, all employees can decide themselves in which investment model (dynamic, balanced or defensive) their pension fund contributions should be invested. This is particularly important for short-term investment periods, as the investment risk and the associated fluctuations on the capital market can have a greater impact on riskier investment groups ("The Life Cycle Model - choices and investment").

The following regulations must be considered with regard to the choice of model:

• All employees who were enrolled in the pension scheme after 1 September 2014 can exercise their right of choice immediately upon enrolment (usually 2 years after the beginning of the employment relationship). If no choice is made, the assets are invested in the defensive investment group (this aims to achieve the lowest possible performance volatility).

• The assets of all those employees who were enrolled in the pension scheme before 1 September 2014 are invested in the balanced investment model. (In this model, the average proportion of shares is higher than in the defensive investment model, but lower than in the dynamic investment model; the investment risk is therefore lower on average than in the dynamic investment model, but somewhat higher than in the defensive investment model.)

• All employees already enrolled in the pension fund system can change their investment model, with this switch taking effect at the start of the next calendar year. However, this is only possible a maximum of three times until the pension fund benefit is  drawn (i.e. until retirement).

Employee contributions

At employee's express request, contributions by the employee up to a certain amount as part of the company pension plan are possible.

In order to support you in your choice of model, the two Staff Council groups organize an information event with the Valida pension fund once a year for all employees at WU.

The last such information event took place in September 2024. You can find more information here.

*** Current Information sheet (as of January 2024) ***

Current Blicktarifpakete - as of January 2023

Blicktarifpaket für PraeDocs 2023
Blicktarifpaket für Post Docs 2023

Blicktarifpaket für Grundstufe 2B 2023

Blicktarifpaket für Grundstufe 3B 2023

Blicktarif mit erhöhtem Risikoschutz (Jahrespension, Jahresbeitrag EUR 1.000,--)

Blicktarif ohne erhöhtem Risikoschutz (Jahrespension, Jahresbeitrag EUR 1.000,--)

If you have any questions about the company pension scheme, please contact Valida Vorsorge Management, Mooslackengasse 12, 1190 Vienna:

Tel: +43 1 316 48-6666, Email: kus-grosskunden@valida.at

Occupational employee provision / severance pay “new version”

All employees who started working at WU after 1 January 2003, or who have been employed as freelance employees according to § 4 para. 4 ASVG (e.g. external lecturers), have a statutory right to receive severance pay upon termination of their contract (also retirement) based on an occupational employee provision scheme. WU pays 1.53% of your gross salary each month (with the exception of the first month of employment) as a severance payment contribution to the APK Vorsorgekasse (provision fund).

The APK Vorsorgekasse invests your money for you on the capital markets. This continues until the end of your employment at WU.

At this point, if you have been employed for at least three years - and if the way in which your contract meets certain criteria (e.g. if a fixed-term employment contract expires) you have two choices. You can either ask for the full sum of those contributions (including any accumulated interest) to be paid out to you, or you can carry the payment amount over to the next employment contract and thus to a new provision fund (according to the "rucksack principle"). Even if the conditions for either option are not (yet) met, the capital saved will not be lost, but will continue to be invested with the APK provision fund until a later date (at the latest until retirement).

• APK-Infofolder

• Info-sheet

APK Vorsorgekasse AG, Stahlstraße 2-5, 4020 Linz

Sabine Haslehner

Tel.: 0 50 275 5602