Can anyone help with advice or information with regards terminating a verbal work agreement/contract? My husband has been taking some kids to school and picking them up again as a way to earn some money of his own whilst he searched for a job. He has now found a more suitable position and has advised the family with one months notice that he can no longer do this. Family are now threatening him and saying he has a verbal contract till June.

Where does he stand legally in CH in being able to just walk away? This attitude and reaction means that he now wants nothing more to do with them effective immediately.

We're really stressed - any advice and or guidance would be greatly appreciated

everything here works on written contracts.. i would tell them to stick it, by giving a months notice he has been more than generous.

No, verbal also works.

My 21 1/2 year old work contract is 100% verbal.

Tom

and..? does he??

you left out the most important details. what was agreed verbally when he started?

Who's your employer? The mob?

I know someone who's was in a similar position, although not involving transportation of children, verbal contract started verbally, over a short period of time, disagreement occured, and verbal contract terminated well... verbally!

Noone knows what you agreed and when you agreed it and how long for... tell them to sue you if they like, it's your word against theirs, a judge is not even going to waste his time on this, one month notice is enough and would tell them where to go!

it would be a case of "he said she said" with regard to the OP case.

thanks for the quick feedback and as requested here is some more info...

a mutual acquaintance initiated the contact and translated the meetings etc (the Family do not speak more than a few words of English), my Hubby has no recollection of "commitment" to drive until June and feels he made it clear he was always going to be looking for a "proper" job. The fly in the ointment so to speak is that the acquaintance seems to "agree" that there was a verbal agreement till June. To be honest if he had realised or understood this to be the case then he would never have agreed to it.

Family have taken the "P" out of him asking him to do extra journeys and shopping trips (mother does not drive) rarely offer any more money for his time or fuel, he is paid peanut scraps in the first place, and if we were to really work it out we'd probably find that it costs us Money for him to do the job!!! Kids treat our car with no respect and trash it, they have also become really rude and insolent. He really is an all round Mr Nice guy and would never intentionally hurt, upset or mislead anyone – hence the stress now. We expected she (mother) would be upset etc but the level of aggression and the “threats” has really blown him away.

As we are not Swiss we just worry what can she really do in the eyes of the Law here?

I'm guessing this is 'black' work - no work contract, no tax paid, no social security payments...your husband may or may not be legally entitled to work anyway...

So you 'quit'. So what are they going to do ? Report you to the work authorities (in which case, they get in trouble for illegally employing someone)...report you to the visa authorities (in which case, don't tell them anything unless you've got legal advice)...

What are they actually 'threatening him' with ?

Personally, I'd be very careful about abusing someone who looks after my kids (they obviously trust him more than themselves).... and I certainly wouldn't want to twist someone's arm into caring for my children...not a good foundation for a responsible adult and a vulnerable child.

Sounds like the person is either a) desperate or b) loopy.... they need to find another cheap, exploitable person, to support their lifestyle...

if they ask for extra trips etc say it will cost x amount per km or just not be available. do nothing more than you have agreed to do, or another route is to say you cant drive the car anymore due to some mechanical issue.

A verbal agreement is as valid as a written one. Just harder to enforce.

If the work is properly registered, then I propose that your husband find a way of disqualifying himself from driving. (A speeding ban should do it, but could be expensive - "illness" might by better). If the work isn't registered, tell 'em to sue.

Did you verbally agree to fix you price until June? If not you could increase your price to some stupidly high level and wait for them to sack you.

According to the law, the notice period within the first three months (probationary period) is one week. After that and within the first year it is one month. If no other terms have been agreed to then the legal minimums would apply.

With a verbal contract, as it often ends up being "I said - he said", one tends to use the legal minimums. In this case it would be one month which your husband has adhered to.

As an earlier poster said, it could hardly be considered a legal employment contract if the employer has not taken out accident insurance and is not paying the legal social security payments. So the people moaning are on thin ice and the range of success if they took it to court would be somewhere between slim and none. The question is whether it would even be worth their while.

You have to admit though that these people must be amazingly stupid and insensitive if they begrudge your husband finding a new job in these tough times. They certainly wouldn't be on my christmas card list....

Yes, verbal contracts are accepted in Switzerland.

Problem is, they probably have no record of your husband working for them, ie, no AHV paid, no monetary bank transfers, no tax paid. He was working black

Tell them if they sue you for leaving before this silly 1 year agreement was apparently made, tell them that he will sue them as he didnt realise that they were making him work black. Also get him to claim the swiss minimum wage backdated

[QUOTE=NotAllThere;1428277]A verbal agreement is as valid as a written one. Just harder to enforce.

/QUOTE]

I work as a lawyer, I agree with the above.

A verbal agreement is valid, but how can one enforce it since the terms cannot be proved before a court - Mr X says XXX was agreed, and Mr Y says YYY was agreed.

In your situation, I would simply immediately walk away from this agreement. If you want to be polite you can say that you are sick, and refuse to enter into any more dialogue or correspondence.

The chance of them taking any legal action against you is 0.1%, and the chance of them winning if they do is 0%.

Dear All - just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who commented and provided us support yesterday with this issue... think all is ok now as "Employer" has calmed down and is no longer threatening. Hubby now feels less stressed due to all your feedback too.

thanks Again!