Under Austrian law, a recommendation letter must be truthful and cannot contain language that would aggravate the professional advancement of the employee.
When truthfulness would result in less than lavish praise, employers must resort to a short-form recommendation letter, devoid of any information beyond the type of work performed and the duration of employment. This alternative, although accurate in its lack of praise, can aggravate an employee’s career prospects.
ILO-Newsletter, dd. 7 February 2018
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