Confidentiality and data secrecy agreement for employees (Austria)
Published byDocMuse
This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
A confidentiality agreement for employees in Austria, in German, with the undertaking to keep data secrecy that every employer must obtain from its staff under § 6 of the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG), including the information on transfer instructions and the consequences of a breach. It protects trade secrets under §§ 26a ff of the Unfair Competition Act (UWG) by naming categories and secrecy measures, leaves out the employee's own pay and whistleblowing reports, and offers an optional non-compete clause under § 2c AVRAG and § 36 AngG.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Employer
- Employer's registered address
- Company register number (FN) and register court, if registered
- Person signing for the employer
- Academic degree (if wanted)
- Employee
- Date of birth
- Employee's address
- Scope of confidentiality
- The employer's secrecy measures (e.g. access rights, marking as confidential)
- Months of secrecy after the employment ends
- Instructions on passing on personal data that apply to the employee
- Non-compete clause: agreed or not
- Length of the non-compete clause in months (at most 12)
- What counts as competing
- Territory
- Contractual penalty in euros (at most six net monthly pays)
- City
- Date
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- When is a non-compete clause valid under Austria's § 2c AVRAG and § 36 AngG?
- Only if the employee was of age when signing, the clause is limited to the employer's line of business, lasts at most one year, does not unfairly hinder the employee's career, and the last month's pay without special payments exceeds twenty times the daily maximum contribution base — €4,620 gross in 2026. Unlike in Germany, no compensation is owed. If the employer gives notice, it binds only where the employee was at fault or the employer keeps paying the last pay. A contractual penalty is capped at six net monthly pays and can be reduced by the court.
- Why must an employer in Austria bind staff to data secrecy under § 6 DSG?
- Because the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG) requires it: the employer must contractually bind staff not already bound by law to pass on personal data only on instruction and to keep data secrecy even after the employment ends. It must also inform them of the instructions that apply and of the consequences of a breach (§ 6 Abs 2 and 3 DSG). No one who refuses to carry out an unlawful transfer may suffer for it (§ 6 Abs 4 DSG). This agreement contains both the undertaking and the information.
- What is a trade secret under Austria's UWG, and is a clause in the contract enough?
- Protected is information that is secret, has commercial value because it is secret, and is subject to reasonable secrecy measures (§ 26b UWG, since 2019). A clause in the contract alone may not be enough; the employer must actually protect the information too. This agreement therefore names the categories kept secret and the measures, such as access rights. General professional know-how, the employee's own pay and reports under the Whistleblower Protection Act (HSchG) are not covered.
- Is a ban on poaching colleagues a non-compete clause in Austria?
- It can be. On 27 May 2026 Austria's Supreme Court made clear that the content counts, not the label: where a ban on poaching or employing colleagues after leaving restricts the employee's working life, it is treated as a non-compete clause (OGH 9 ObA 6/26m). Such employee-protection clauses are then subject to the same limits: full age, the employer's line of business, at most one year, the pay threshold. This agreement contains no separate poaching ban; anyone who wants one puts it into the non-compete clause.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
DocMuse sells documents, not legal advice. Acceptance always depends on the recipient's rules and your local law.
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