Hello


I have searched the forum, but could not find anything on this.

Basically I was wondering:
The Swiss employment law states that you get paid days off work for the following (sorry, link only exists in German, French and Italian):
<http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/221_215_329_2/a14.html>

Now, our company for example gives husbands only paid 1 day off work when the wife gives birth. Also when one moves, they only get 1 paid day off work.

I have asked around here at work how this works with the Swiss employement law and no one could really tell me. One said that if the contract states something else, then the contract is binding, no matter what the law states; others were saying that the Swiss employement law has to be adhert to by any company and thus the employee handbook should be changed.

Does anyone of you know, what's correct and what's not?

Many thanks in advance

Is your husband a "milchwirtschaftliche Arbeitnehmer"? Because that is what that webpage is for (unless it is some subtelty of Swiss German).

Didnt think any contract could ever be "Above the Law"...

Swiss employment and labour law can be viewed as a hiearchy of the following

1. Federal Labor Law (regulates certain health related aspects of work)
2. Code of Obligations (contains the general contract provisions)
3. Collective Bargaining Agreement (contains specific contract provisions negotiated between labour unions and employers). These Collective Bargaining Agreements can even be raised to the level of a law and thus apply to all employees working in a specific field of work.
4. Individual contract provisions

There are also some further federal laws which may apply (non-discrimination laws, etc.)

No individual employment contract can be above the law, i.e. violate mandatory norms of law. Any such "illegal" provisions would be null and void.

This being said the Code of Obligations and some Collective Bargaining Agreements also contain non-mandatory norms, which only come into play if the parties (employer and employee) have not made any specific agreements. In this case, the Code of Obligation or the Collective Bargaining Agreements provide "default rules", which can be amended by the parties in an individual employment contract.

To make things even more complicated some provisions of the Code of Obligations are half-mandatory. This means that the parties may only change them if the changes are at least equal or better for the employee.

No - it isn't. The law cited is only relevant for cow farmers (no, this is not a joke) and nobody else.

peter

It can also be "below the law". It is up to you to make sure it is within the law eg extra working hours.