Short-time work

Please note that this Manual is intended to assist you in setting up wage types and processing short-time work in SwissSalary.

For all legal and technical inquiries regarding short-time work compensation, please refer to the relevant cantonal office or the Circular / the Unemployment Insurance Act (AVIG) practice, which can be found at arbeit.swiss.

Short-time work

Short-time work refers to temporary reduction or total cessation of work in a company, while maintaining contractual employment relationship. Short-time work usually depends on economic circumstances.

The introduction of short-time work is intended to compensate for temporary employment losses and preserve jobs. (Source: Seco)

Procedure

Planned short-time work must be reported in writing to the official body in charge at least 10 days prior to its start.

If short-time work must be introduced due to sudden, unforeseeable circumstances, the notification peri-od is exceptionally three days. The employer must be able to prove the suddenness.

Furthermore, commercial control of hours worked is required for employees affected by short-time work. It provides information on daily hours worked and overtime hours worked, hours lost due to economic reasons and all other absences like holidays, sick leaves, accident or military absences.

If short-time work is only introduced for individual sectors of the company, one form must be filled for each department.