Academic Staff Council

Changes to meal subsidy from October 1, 2025!

eating

After lengthy discussions between both staff councils and the rectorate, there will finally be a change to meal vouchers from October 1, 2025. Since demand for this employer benefit, which is very popular among staff, has fallen significantly with the switch to the dbon app, and since it has taken five months for new colleagues to be able to take advantage of this benefit, the Rectorate has decided to switch to digital Edenred restaurant vouchers in the future.

As the Vice Rector for Human Resources already explained in his circular email dated September 9, 2025, this change will result in a massive expansion of redemption options, which means that in the future, all WU employees will be able to redeem their vouchers at the same partner establishments, regardless of which WU building they work in or whether they perform their work for WU during mobile work (applies to administrative staff) or as part of the relaxed on-site requirements (applies to academic staff; the relevant regulations can be found in the corresponding WUPol).

With the switch to Edenred restaurant vouchers, various daily limits for redemption are also eliminated, and the respective credit balance can be accessed directly when using the Edenred app or when paying online, without having to pay the subsidy in advance and then laboriously scan the invoice afterwards.

Important for all previous users of the dbon app who still have an active credit balance: Invoices can only be uploaded until October 31, 2025; as of November 1, 2025, access to the dbon app will be blocked for all WU employees.

Together with the Rectorate, we hope that this change represents a positive development of what has been a very popular voluntary social benefit offered by the employer for many years. More detailed information about the new voucher system will be announced in the coming weeks. If you have any questions or problems with the new system after that, Academic Staff Council will be happy to help you. You can reach us at wiss.betriebsrat@wu.ac.at.

10.09.2025

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