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| Hello All,
Although this is my first posting here, I have been visiting this site in the last months. I would really appreciate any help or comment on my question/situation.
I am in the UK and I was offered a position in Zurich by my current employer. This position will be under a local Swiss contract meaning that I will not be an expatriate there.
The problem is my employer refuses to say the amount of working hours I will have to work there. They argue that the normal Swiss working contract does not specify any amount of hours per week that employees should work. Instead my contract says I should "dedicate and devote my full time to the business and work as much as necessary in order to have the business done". Obviously, overtime will be not paid.
Seriously I have never seen such a thing in my life and I am talking about a multinational consumer goods company here... No, I am not an executive (my level is analyst) and I am afraid this is going to give my employer a full control of my life.
For the ones out there who have a Swiss contract:
1) Have you ever seen something similar?
2) Do you have in your employement contract the amount of hours you are supposed to work?
3) If so, how many hours per week is the standard?
Thanks very much for your help. | |
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Just to fill you in here. It is normal to state the working hours but it is not necessary in the same way as it is not necessary to state the starting time and ending time of a day. Standard hours are dependent on industry sector and are either 45 or 50. Over that overtime is obligatory ie they are legally obliged to pay it unless you are in the Kader - ie a management grade.
There is no such thing as standard working hours per Kanton or Gemeinde as in other points that are written int he forum. The reason for leaving this out is to avoid a cut-off point after which you would be entitled to compensation in some form for overtime worked.
Standard hours in Switzerland is 42 per working week.
The clause in your contract that states that you should work full-time is probably a translation issue. It was beneficial to be "full time" in the past although the legal position has since greatly changed.
It is legally a non-sentence in that an employer cannot tie you to your job and as such the part of the sentence that ignores or breaks the law is ignored or at least you can ignore it - the actually phrase is however standard that you work as much as is necessary to get the job done - to the legal limit of 50 hours per week before compensation is needed.