Working until you drop?

Cost-cutting is the order of the day: jobs are being cut or not refilled following redundancies, retirements are being brought forward, departments are being merged and workloads are being reduced. The pressure on the remaining employees is growing. Even in advertising agencies. Regular overtime is part of everyday life. Do employees really have to work without end?
According to the Swiss Code of Obligations, employees are generally obliged to work overtime. However, this only applies if overtime is necessary for operational reasons and can be reasonably expected of the employee. What is reasonable depends on the individual case. For example, overtime is not reasonable for an employee with a health condition, for a mother who has to pick up her child from nursery after office hours or for a customer advisor who wants to attend further training after work. It is also unreasonable if the same employees in a company are always "ordered" to work overtime.
When must overtime be compensated?
According to the law, overtime must be compensated by time off of the same duration or by a wage plus a supplement of at least 25 percent. However, this regulation may be contractually excluded. However, such an agreement is only valid if it is set out in a written employment contract. Employees are therefore not always compensated for additional working hours. In practice, it is becoming increasingly common to find clauses in employment contracts stating that overtime is included in the basic salary. Without such a provision, overtime is subject to compensation, whereby the employee can choose between financial compensation and compensation in the form of time off.
Most employees would like to reduce their overtime with additional time off, preferably in full days rather than by the hour. However, if orders fail to materialize in times of crisis and there is too little work available, an employer may require its employees to reduce their overtime by the hour. The law expects employees to accommodate their employer in difficult economic situations as part of their duty of loyalty.
If compensation for overtime is no longer possible, for example at the end of the employment relationship, the overtime must be paid out together with the supplement. Compensation for overtime is part of the insured earnings under social insurance law. The salary deductions for AHV/IV/EO, ALV and pension fund must therefore be made from the overtime compensation. Some pension funds stipulate in their regulations that "occasional salary components" are not part of the salary. If there is no such provision in the regulations, overtime payments must be included in the insured salary.

Book tip
Irmtraud Bräunlich Keller, Arbeitsrecht - Vom Vertrag bis zur Kündigung. Beobachter-Buchverlag, 272 pages, paperback, Fr. 36.-.
10th, expanded and updated edition, April 2009,
ISBN 978 3 85569 412 9.

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