Ex-post control Unlawful reduction in salary The civil servants assigned to the Austrian Postbus Ltd. (bus company run by the Austrian Federal Railways) only received a flat amount, not their salary, for attending a mandatory further education event. This arrangement is against the law. Mr N.N. is a civil servant assigned to Austrian Postbus Ltd., in the role of bus driver. He submitted a complaint that he did not receive his full salary for the time spent at training events and only received a flat amount of EUR 63 instead. Mr N.N. was sent a notification immediately after the investigative proceedings were launched. The AOB found that the provisions of the Postbus Training Rules were implemented correctly. However, the AOB was unable to identify a legal basis for the salary cut specified in these rules. Instead, this appeared to be unlawful, particularly because Mr N.N was obligated to attend these training events as part of his employment. No basis for salary cut Postbus Ltd. told AOB that, “before the Rules’ release, the legal situation was evaluated extensively with external legal support and finally, the Rules were released - based on the legal opinion -, so that there is reason to assume that the current Rules are lawful”. However, the AOB was neither informed of which “external legal support” the company employed nor was it sent the mentioned opinion. This lack of support for the AOB must be viewed as a violation of Article 148b (1) of the Federal Constitutional Act. Postbus Ltd. does not present basis for its decision It must be stated in this matter that the “external legal support” fundamentally misjudged the legal situation. Based on a complaint, the Federal Constitutional Court in its ruling on 17 June 2013, V 29/2013, overrode the provisions as unlawful. In the reasons for its ruling, the Federal Constitutional Court explained in detail that the Salary Act (Gehaltsgesetz) is a “closed system of benefits under salary law”. As a result, benefits may only be cut or cancelled if the civil servant fails to perform his or her official tasks in full or in part. The Salary Act (Gehaltsgesetz) contains no further provisions or authorisations for the authorities of other circumstances in which benefits may be cut or cancelled. The AOB does not see how the authorities releasing the Rules could have reached a different legal interpretation. Constitutional Court overrides provisions as unlawful Since the Constitutional Court had not set a deadline for the provisions identified as unlawful to expire, they cease to be effective for all of the company’s public services employees immediately from the announcement of the ruling overriding the provisions in the Federal Law Gazette. No further releases by the AOB were required with regard to the Constitutional Court’s ruling. Lawful remuneration ensured Individual case: VA-BD-VIN/0182-A/1/2012 49