Dear forum members,

This is the situation: the employee is sick, goes to his house doctor, gets a certificate for being on sick leave, stays home. The employer does not believe the doctor's certificate and asks for a second opinion from a doctor of his choice, threatening legal actions if the request is not fulfilled.

Questions are:

- shouldn't the house doctor's certificate be enough? Can the employer demand such a second opinion and choose the doctor? (the contract does not specify anything in this regard)

- what do you think would happen in case the second doctor judges the situation differently?

Thanks for your inputs!

Giff

As far as I know, and this is from experience rather than reading the working law, employers in CH may send the employee to an independent doctor (at the employers cost) if they judge the certificate to not be valid / employee to be less than truthful with self certification.

The one thing to note is that the independent doctor does not (can not) reveal to the employer the nature of the sickness (doctor / patient confidentiality).

It's difficult to give a "standard" answer here.

But if the employer has a suspicion of an abuse of sick leave, he will - and in general even has to - take some measures to clarify.

Some doctors here have a tendency to put their patient (=paying client) too quickly on sick leave.

If you do a bit of research, you will find the question has been asked before here. Jrspet quoted the relevant legal article which states clearly that the employer can request an independent examination by a Doctor employed by them, if they so wish.