A. EMPLOYER POLICY REQUIREMENTS
In order to be legally compliant, employers are required by legislation to create and implement the following policies. For industrial enterprises (only) it is mandatory to have a written occupational health and safety policy which has to be approved by the competent labour inspectorate.
Larger companies (including its Swiss branches and subsidiaries) are by mandatory law expected to have a policy against sexual harassment and bullying / mobbing at the work place and a program to implement the policy
There are a number of policies that employers should create. These policies will help an organization manage employee relations and mitigate the risk of legal liability in the future:
- A policy on the use of private email and internet is strongly advisable if there are any restrictions and/or any monitoring of such.
- Code of Conduct, including o Sexual harassment, mobbing o Anti-bribery (depending on the industry) o Non-discrimination
- Policy on use of private email and internet
- Policy on expenses / travel / use of business card
- Company Car Policy
- Participation of employees (in case of an elected staff representative body which is not mandatory)
- Work time regulation
While not a policy itself, many employers in Switzerland decide to put all of the foregoing policies and procedures within a unified employee “handbook” that contains all the information every employee would need in the employment relationship.
Our firm has prepared precedent policies which can be efficiently modified for your organization.
B. EMPLOYEE TRAINING REQUIREMENTS
According to Swiss labour legislation, the employer is obliged to take all measures to prevent accidents at work and occupational diseases that are necessary in the light of general experience, applicable according to the state of the art and appropriate to the given circumstances.
The employer must involve employees in the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases. If the employer has entrusted an employee with certain occupational safety tasks, he must provide him or her with appropriate training and further training and must give him or her clear instructions and competences. Depending on the industry, there are different specific provisions dealing with such training requirements.
C. EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENTS
In Switzerland, unless otherwise agreed in a Collective Agreement, an employment contract does not necessarily have to be concluded in writing with the following exceptions:
- Apprenticeship Agreements
- Employment contract with personnel assigned to client company (personnel lending)
- Commercial traveler’s contract
However, the employer has to provide the employee at least the following information in writing:
- the names of the contracting parties;
- the date of the beginning of the employment relationship;
- the employee’s function;
- the salary and any additional benefits;
- the length of the working week.
Moreover, certain agreements between employer and employee are only valid if concluded in writing, including the following:
- post-termination restrictive covenants (non-competition, non-solicitation)
- Notice periods in deviation from statutory law
- Probation period in deviation from statutory law
- Inclusion of overtime compensation in base salary
- Compensation of overtime by time off (as opposed to monetary compensation)
- Agreement on daily sickness insurance
Our firm has prepared countless employment agreements in various languages.