Hi,

my company is terminating my employment contract with a 3 month notice.

Do you know what happens if I leave Switzerland ? Am I still entitled to get the payments for the notice left?

What happens if I find a job abroad and I cancel my registration in CH? Perhaps I should cancel my Swiss registration only when the notice is over? I wonder if that could cause issues with my pension given that I would have it accrued by two different companies in two different countries.

Normally termination doesn't give you the right to just leave, you may have to work your notice period or they may put you on garden leave but you are still supposed to be available.

In practice if you talk to them they may be flexible about where you are, but I'd be surprised if they were happy about you permanently leaving before the end of the contract as it would put them in a difficult situation wrt tax, pension etc. Quite likely permanently leaving Switzerland would also count as you immediately terminating the contract.

If you get another job you have to terminate the existing contract anyway before you can start the new one, that will be a condition of your employment (i.e. no working for someone else at the same time).

Pension would probably not be an issue, but tax could be a mess.

correct, I am on garden leave but the termination letter states " exempt you from the obligation to come to work"

The big doubt is about the taxation indeed. Perhaps I can deregister from CH once the notice is over, so I will declare my CH income in CH and the income from the other country in the other country.
This is my theory based on nothing .

CH may wants tax payments for the income in the other country though. This could be regulated by the treaties against double taxation.

Yes, it could be quite difficult to predict and quite risky, but it would be a pity to lose few Swiss monthly salaries.

That "exempt you from the obligation to come to work" is definition of gardening leave - mind it doesn't mean "exempt you from the work obligations".

Now you also should consider your position going forward

- you want to move to another country to find a job however you have no guaranty to get one quickly
-> consider ALV (RAV) insutrance for jobless - that entitles you to 3-months salary when searching for a job abroad and since it's based on your Swiss salary ( capped at 120k/year - 70% of it) it may be something you want to reconsider your quick departure.
- by leaving you'd close many doors as large companies normally would hire workers from abroad only when they have no other choice and you be clearly preferred candidate since you already in CH with all valid permits . This would allow you to ask for higher salary same time .

I would also say - calm down - it's natural instinct when we feel insecure to go to safe harbour and find all the 'negatives' in current situation - this will pass - there is great people and places here , great jobs and great manager/friends - take a time and find them - they come hard but last lifelong !

and .. Good luck and good night

Thanks, I appreciated you extra considerations. In terms of strategy I prefer to find a job as soon as possible. Waiting to find a job in CH is just a waste of time considering that I don't speak German and my profile is open on linkedIn way erlier than my termination letter.

Back to the core of my comment, perhaps I get lost in translation but if I don't have to come/report to work..... then I can do something else.

This is the full sentence if it makes any difference:
"As agreed, we have decided to exempt you from the obligation to come to work,
starting as [date] of which date you will no longer be expected to report to work "

This is another sentence that would imply that I am free to do other things:

"You are requested to inform us immediately in the event you are entitled to
compensation from a new employer during the notice period. In this case, your
new earnings would be offset against our payments"

...but again, the focus was on whether it is worth to complicate things to save some money. Apparently, it is not.

All that means is while they don't expect you to come into the office every day, if there's something only you can do or an emergency only you can deal with they'll expect you to be available to deal with it - which you can't if you're off in another country.

probably 3/4 people on this forum speak no German and possibly same amount works on IT (both are guesstimates) - so that is not the thing.

Linkedin is nice tool but real work doesn't come that way usually - it's more about connecting with people different way and being recognised for your achievements and hard dedication to work.

I do not know your background nor history - I see "network specialist" and just first thing I see is "swisscom" looking for some - sending application costs nothing these days .

When you fall - stand up and try again - you do not recognise character by successes but by how ones comes out of defeat .

One more thing , when I see candidate that has all the necessary skills and meets every criteria - I ask him first how long he plans to stay as there be limited opportunities to learn more - however when I see eager to learn person I believe he can grow and when I give him a chance - he may prove I was right ( and don't we all love to be right about other people ?)

Until role is customer facing where you need to use German - I'd not care less for backed engineer speaking only English - at the end of the day he can learn German , but job being done is the key criteria

It is very simple you must be available to go into the office during work hours if requested to do so. If they call and you can’t make it in then you are in breach of your contract and they won’t be paying you.

If you want to leave, try and get them to agree to it.