I would have rather told the company I appreciate the offer but the new salary is not competitive therefore ready to negotiate a new contract but only after the expiration of the probation period. If they fire you then just go RAV and protect your income. Negotiating a salary reduction during the probation period is purely a threatening option: do they need your skills or not? If they insist in making pressure then you should consider not to work for such a company any longer. Switzerland is struggling to get qualified experts from abroad, this is not India where you find cheap engineers at each and every corner. You can possibly find a better salary in Germany or France where the cost of living is a fraction.

Cheers,
Josh

Career change or not, the person was interviewed for the junior position and deemed fit to do the job. Not only that but he received an offer in the UK comparable to 78K in francs.

They have hired him knowing he was out of a job for a year and really wanted this new line of job and after he moved all the way from the UK to here, they thought "Hmm, maybe we can get him to accept a cut, let's try our luck".

Oh, one thing more: I have seen some pretty useless people (Swiss but I am sure there are others of different nationalities) here in IT who had no relevant experience or education and believe me they didn't start from zero. In fact they were in positions of responsibility.

I don't understand why everyone is defending the employer's behaviour. If someone tried to get out of a measly gym membership saying they only agreed by email or back out of a 30 CHF purchase on Ricardo you would all say "But a contract is a contract" and here the guy signs a contract for 100K and now if offered to accept 78K or become jobless and that is OK?

Unfortunately, the OP was unemployed for a year before this job and does not meet the RAV entitlement condition.

Hi Kedi, are you sure?

Before I came to CH, I was working in Germany for 18 months and RAV counted my contributions taking into account that I also worked for an insurance company in Basel for another 18 months before I was out of work for a year.

psssssssst, 25% of Chf 100k is Chf 25k, not Chf 15k......


Maybe this is why ?

You can be let go with one weeks' notice at ANY time during the probationary period.....


Evidently they do not need his skills so much or they wouldn't have brought this up as we all know it is a very contentious subject


A better salary if Germany of France, i doubt it, sure cost of living is cheaper, but correspondingly, salaries are lower and taxes higher.

I must have misunderstood. I think the rule is to have worked 12 months in the last 2 years. So you might still be entitled. It's best to ask RAV at any case.

I agree 100% with you. I can't understand why there are people here who consider acceptable the employer behavior. I am one that prefer much more the Swiss labor model than those old, slow, and counterproductive French/Italian labor laws, but here we have a case where the boss is, at least in my eyes, acting dishonestly.

Maybe... he talks about his net loss of income, hmm?

Hi, I was looking at the projection over the course of the first year only, as it has not come into effect yet.

Either way, they have not done me any favours, as if I do have to go to RAV, I will suffer on a much lower income all thanks to this company.

Not that much I´d reckon as they look at your income from the last 12/24 months.

whatever, i can only take the title of the thread as a basis and even if he is talking about net loss........Chf 10k for his size salary as a difference is rather a lot, so i tend to think we are on gross salary anyway !

I would start looking now.

Aim to work there for a year (max) and move on.

78k/year is on the very low end for a software eng job in Zurich.

Just accept the job to get a foothold in Switzerland and then find a new one... plenty of people do the same

Usually they find a reason to fire those people whom they find excessively expensive.. I doubt they'll try to lower the salary even if this is the real reason behind (i.e. I doubt it is legal unless other circumstances change). It's a question of (direct) management, not HR. Check out if those persons work in a project that has new managers.... ;-)

I think you have been dealt with unfairly. But try to move on: Look for a new job (don't disclose your current salary in the interview). Make up a good sounding excuse for wanting to change jobs (don't mention the reduced salary)

I feel exploited Kedi. It's no different to stealing. Why not disclose the details about the pay cut to prospective employers? If not, then what should I say if they asked why do you want to leave so soon?

6 months, 12 if it's to your advantage.

Tom

As per the original post, I've lived in Switzerland for 2.5 years. If they fire me then I will go to a lawyer, because they're thieves.