Austrian judges warn that staffing gaps will halt courts after October
Judges and prosecutors in Austria say the workforce allocated for 2026 will be exhausted by the end of October, prompting an "Action Week" to highlight the crisis.
The personnel budget for Austrian judges and prosecutors is set to run out after ten months, meaning courts will be unable to operate at full capacity beyond the end of October. Nationwide, roughly 250 judicial positions and 70 prosecutorial posts are vacant, a gap the judges' association hopes to spotlight through an Action Week starting Monday. Maria Nazari-Montazer, a labour-court judge and third vice-president of the judges' association, said judges cannot take paid overtime and must continue working despite the strain.
She described how case backlogs are growing, with first hearings for employment termination lawsuits now taking up to six months. The shortage is attributed to rising case numbers since the pandemic and a stagnant number of full-time judges, especially at the Labour and Social Court in Vienna, which operates with 33 full-time slots but needs 44. The association warns that without new positions, the rule of law could be undermined.
