SWITZERLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Philippe Nordmann, Marion Bähler, Christian Hagen, Samuel Lieberherr and Dario Glauser, Walder Wyss Ltd
explicitly or impliedly communicated corresponding declarations of intent, pursuant to which: • the employee undertakes to work in the service of the employer for a limited or unlimited period; and • the employer undertakes to pay remuneration to the employee. For the purpose of proof alone, however, it is always advisable to conclude an employment contract in writ - ing. Exceptions There are also exceptions to the aforementioned principle of freedom of form. First, there are specific employment contracts whose conclusion requires the observation of the written form (eg, apprenticeship contracts). Secondly, there are a number of specific contractual provisions in any employment contract that may only be bindingly agreed upon in writing (eg, post-contractual non-compete restrictions). Duration of Employment Contracts Permanent versus fixed-term employment contracts Swiss employment law provides for two basic types of employment contracts – ie, permanent and fixed-term employment contracts: • permanent employment contracts are entered into for an indefinite period, and their termination requires a notice of termination (which may, in the sense of temporal protection against terminations, not be given at an inopportune juncture); and • fixed-term employment contracts simply cease at the end of their fixed term and do not, at least as a matter of principle, provide for a premature ordi - nary termination option (although this is a possibil - ity the parties may agree on). Prohibition of “illegal chain employment contracts” To guarantee a minimum temporal protection against terminations for the benefit of the employee, case law has developed the rule that it is not possible to agree on multiple consecutive fixed-term employment con - tracts without an objective reason for preferring this to a permanent employment contract. In the absence of such an objective reason, the seemingly fixed-term
employment contracts are, therefore, simply reinter - preted into one permanent employment contract. Maximum Duration of Employment Contracts After ten years, any fixed-term employment contract concluded for a longer duration (which is extremely unusual) may be terminated by either party by giving six months’ notice expiring at the end of a month. 4.3 Working Time No Minimum Working Time for Salaried Employees Swiss law does not provide for minimum working times. As a matter of principle, it is up to the parties to agree on a salaried employee′s workload. Maximum Working Time for Some Salaried Employees Maximum weekly and daily working time for a large group of salaried employees At least for a large group of employees employed in Switzerland, the Federal Act on Work in Industry, Trade and Commerce (the “Labour Act”) provides for weekly and daily maximum working times. These maximum working times pursuant to the Labour Act particularly, but not exhaustively, apply to most so- called blue-collar workers but explicitly not to employ - ees holding a higher executive position, employees performing a scientific activity and employees per - forming an autonomous artistic activity (to name a few of the exceptions). Maximum weekly working time for salaried employees who are subject to the Labour Act With regard to employees who are subject to the Labour Act, the maximum weekly working time is gen - erally either 45 hours (roughly simplified: for employ - ees performing predominantly intellectual work in offices or office-like jobs) or 50 hours (roughly sim - plified: for employees with a predominantly manual field of activity). These limits may still be exceeded in exceptional cases, however. Maximum daily working time for salaried employees who are subject to the Labour Act With regard to employees who are subject to the Labour Act, there is also a general maximum daily working time of 12.5 or 13 hours (depending on the calculation method) to observe. This follows (indirect -
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