Switzerland: Flexible Working Models and Working-Time Compliance

Flexible working has become a permanent feature of modern employment practice, but flexibility does not remove the need for employers to comply with mandatory working-time rules. In Switzerland, employers may use a range of flexible models, including flexitime, annualised working hours and trust-based working time. These arrangements can give employees greater autonomy and allow businesses to respond more effectively to operational requirements, but they remain subject to statutory rules on maximum working hours, rest periods and working-time recording.

Flexitime, Overtime and Statutory Excess Hours

Under a flexitime arrangement, employees may determine the beginning and end of their working day, and often their breaks, within parameters established by the employer. Some employers combine flexible periods with fixed core hours, while others allow broader flexibility.

Where employees voluntarily work additional hours within the flexitime system so that they can take time off later, those hours are generally treated differently from overtime required for operational reasons or ordered by the employer.

This distinction is important because Swiss law treats flexitime credits, contractual overtime and hours exceeding statutory maximum working time differently. Contractual overtime is work performed beyond the employee’s agreed normal working hours but still within the statutory maximum. Where such overtime is necessary or instructed by the employer, it is generally compensated by a 25% salary supplement or, with the employee’s agreement, by equivalent time off. However, written agreements may in certain circumstances exclude or modify compensation for contractual overtime.

Hours worked beyond the statutory weekly maximum are treated separately. The statutory maximum is generally 45 hours per week for employees in industrial undertakings, office and technical employees and certain other categories, and 50 hours for other employees.

Compensation for these statutory excess hours is mandatory and generally takes the form of a 25% salary supplement or equivalent time off with the employee’s consent, subject to specific rules for certain categories of employees.

In practice, employers should consider maintaining separate working-time accounts for flexitime, contractual overtime and statutory excess hours rather than combining all additional hours into a single balance.

Trust-Based Working Time and Record-Keeping Obligations

Trust-based working time is increasingly attractive to employers seeking to give employees greater control over their schedules. However, the Swiss system does not generally allow employers simply to stop recording working time because a role is flexible or senior.

Employers are generally required to keep systematic records of daily and weekly working hours, including statutory excess hours, weekly rest days, qualifying breaks and applicable salary or time supplements.

As a result, a complete waiver of working-time recording is available only in defined circumstances.

Certain employees fall outside much of the scope of the Swiss Labour Act, including employees who qualify as senior managerial employees. The definition is relatively narrow and focuses on employees who have significant decision-making powers or a material influence over the structure, course of business and development of the organisation or part of it.

In practice, this will generally apply only to genuinely senior executives, such as managing directors and members of executive management, with classification depending on the individual circumstances.

When Can Working-Time Recording Be Waived?

A waiver may also be possible where it is provided for by a collective labour agreement, but several requirements must be satisfied.

The employees concerned must have substantial autonomy over their work and be able to determine a significant proportion of their own working time. A guideline of at least 50% working-time autonomy may be relevant.

Employees must also earn a gross annual income, including bonuses, of more than CHF 120,000, adjusted proportionately for part-time or part-year employment.

In addition, the waiver must be individually agreed in writing between the employer and employee.

The relevant collective agreement must contain measures concerning health protection and compliance with rest periods, and the employer must appoint an internal point of contact for working-time matters. Documentation of the collective agreement, individual waivers and the employees covered must also be retained.

Simplified Working-Time Recording

Swiss law also permits simplified working-time recording in some circumstances. This can offer a middle ground between full systematic recording and a complete waiver.

Simplified recording may be introduced for employees who are able to determine a significant part of their own working time, with around 25% used as a guideline.

In that case, only the total daily working time generally needs to be recorded, although the beginning and end of night and Sunday work must also be documented.

For businesses with 50 or more employees, simplified working-time recording requires a collective agreement with employee representatives or, where there is no representative body, with the majority of employees.

The agreement must identify the categories of employees covered and address compliance with working-time and rest-period requirements.

For businesses with fewer than 50 employees, simplified recording may instead be agreed individually in writing with the employee. The agreement must refer to the applicable working-time and rest rules, and the employer must conduct and document an annual discussion concerning the employee’s workload.

Annualised Working Hours

Annualised working-time arrangements offer another form of flexibility. Rather than fixing working hours solely on a weekly basis, the total contractual working hours are distributed across the year, allowing working time to vary according to workload.

However, annualised hours do not remove statutory weekly limits. Complete working-time records remain necessary, and statutory maximum weekly hours must still be observed throughout the year.

An annual working-time arrangement might, for example, provide for 2,080 hours over the year, equivalent to an average 40-hour week. Hours exceeding the annual contractual total may constitute contractual overtime, while statutory excess hours arise immediately when the applicable weekly maximum is exceeded rather than only being calculated at year-end.

What Should International Employers Take From This?

For multinational employers, the Swiss position highlights a broader cross-border employment issue: a global flexible-working policy cannot necessarily be implemented in identical form in every jurisdiction.

Policies covering flexitime, hybrid working, annualised hours or trust-based working time may need to be adjusted to reflect local rules governing maximum hours, overtime, working-time recording, employee autonomy and collective arrangements.

Employers should also consider whether their internal systems distinguish adequately between different categories of additional working time rather than treating all extra hours in the same way.

For international HR teams, the challenge is therefore not simply designing a flexible global policy, but ensuring that it is capable of being implemented locally without creating unintended compliance risks.

Early coordination with local employment counsel can help multinational employers preserve the commercial and employee benefits of flexible working while ensuring that local mandatory requirements are properly addressed.

By Vischer, Switzerland, a Transatlantic Law International Affiliated Firm.

For further information or for any assistance please contact switzerland@transatlanticlaw.com

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