The policy for “Teaching and Sickness” already regulated the conditions to be observed in the event of illness of lecturers. The wissBR has been campaigning for a revision of this WUPol for some time. Together with the Vice-Rectorate for Student Affairs, a new “WUPol on Faculty Prevented from Teaching” has now been formulated, which contains clarifications for cases of inability to work, primarily due to illness and care leave, in order to deal effectively with such mostly unforeseeable situations in relation to teaching obligations. These revised regulations apply to cases of inability to work occurring on or after July 1, 2025.

Whether and if so, what kind of replacement should be provided in the event of cancelled course units is to be decided on a case-by-case basis and is a matter of discretion. In addition to the unreplaced cancellation of individual contact hours, it is also conceivable that other teachers could hold substitute classes, that the classes could be made up at a later date (possibly also by other teachers), that compensatory assignments could be offered to students, or that a short-term switch to online teaching could be made. The latter is only possible in special cases, because in the event of a current inability to work (e.g., illness), all work duties are suspended for the duration of the inability to work.

An explicit limit on the number of course units that can be cancelled without replacement is no longer specified in the new version of the WUPol in order to better accommodate the heterogeneity of WU’s courses. The professor who applies for the course (who this is can generally be found in the “Kontrolllisten” in Bach as the “beantragende*r Professor*in”) is responsible for the decision on cancellation or the type of replacement, in consultation with the program (unit) director. Ideally, this decision should be made in advance for each course so that, if the worst comes to the worst, everyone knows immediately how to proceed. However, this also requires that course instructors inform their supervisor at the same time as reporting their inability to work (sick note or notification of necessary care leave) that a course falls within the period of their inability to work. There are no formal requirements for this notification. A phone call, email, or similar is sufficient. However, a comment in SAP when reporting sick is not sufficient, as supervisors are informed of the sick note but do not receive the comments left in SAP. It is important to emphasize that the course instructor is only required to notify their direct supervisor in the event of illness. All further steps in organizing substitute teaching and informing students are generally to be taken by the responsible persons described above (direct supervisor, program director, applying professor).

If cancelled contact hours are replaced – by the course instructor themselves or other instructors –, instructors receive a teaching allowance if this exceeds their own all-in teaching hours. This teaching allowance must be applied for at the Academic Controlling Office in the Vice-Rectorate for Student Affairs (akadcont@wu.ac.at). To do so, simply send an informal email with information about the unit or units affected, the substitute teacher, and the person responsible for the course.

If the inability to work delays assessment deadlines for final theses or assessment-relevant exam performances of students, it is ultimately the responsibility of the program director to organize a necessary replacement for the assessment. If substitutes then take over the assessment of exam performances, care must be taken to ensure that any exam fees are divided according to the workload taken on and that this is taken into account in the respective entries in Bach or in any large-scale exam billing (“Großprüfungsabrechnung”).

If you have any questions about this new policy or if there is any uncertainty in the event of an inability to perform teaching duties, wissBR is happy to help and can be reached at wiss.betriebsrat@wu.ac.at.

^10.09.2025

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