COVID-19: Update on Swiss short-time working compensation (valid as of 1 June 2020) - Tax and Legal blog

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The Swiss Government has decided in its meeting of 20 May 2020 on a gradual discontinuation from the COVID-19 short-time work compensation scheme.

The respective measures in place served to mitigate the negative effects the current pandemic and the official bans and orders under the Swiss Epidemics Act had on Swiss businesses. They contributed to safeguard jobs and income and guaranteed that affected businesses were helped in a non-bureaucratic way. With the current easement of economic restrictions, the Swiss Government ruled that these measures should also be gradually lifted.

 

From 1 June 2020, the following applies:

  • Persons in an employer-like position as well as their spouse/partner will no longer be entitled to short-time work compensation.
  • Apprentices will as well cease to be eligible for short-time work compensation.
  • The notification period of 10 days will be re-established. This applies only to new requests but not to companies already in possession of a valid pre-notification. For new pre-notifications, the form has to be handed in 10 days before the date as of which short-time work compensation is applied for.

All other measures by the provisions of the COVID-19 Ordinance "Unemployment Insurance" (e.g. the eligibly of fixed-term, on call and temporary employees) will expire by 31 August 2020.

In addition, the Swiss Government has decided to submit to the Swiss Parliament a proposal for an extraordinary supplementary credit of CHF 14.2bn. This credit will cover the cost of short-time work compensation of the current year. Without the additional financing, it is estimated that the unemployment insurance will have debts of over CHF 16bn due to increase in short-time work.

Deloitte's view

The measures implemented in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic were always intended as preliminary. Thus, with businesses and facilities opening, it is justified that certain measures will be lifted. Nevertheless, companies can still benefit from short-term work where necessary.

If you would like to discuss more on this topic, please do reach out to our key contacts below.

 

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Explore our collection of Swiss COVID- Tax & Legal insights designed to help companies in Switzerland to better navigate the COVID-19 crisis.

 

Key contacts

Jürg Birri blog- 1

Jürg Birri - Partner, Head of Legal

Jürg is leading the legal practice at Deloitte in Switzerland. He joined the firm as a Partner in 2019. Jürg is an Attorney-at-Law and a Federal Tax Expert and advises clients in the financial services industry on a wide range of tax and regulatory issues. He is in charge of a larger team of lawyers and experts who specialize notably in business, corporate, M&A, employment, as well as private client and financial market law.

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Bassanello_Christine-4725_original blog

Christine Bassanello – Senior Manager, Deloitte Legal

Christine is a Swiss qualified attorney-at-law with over 10 years of professional experience. She recently joined the legal practice of Deloitte Switzerland and is leading the employment law practice within Deloitte Legal in Eastern Switzerland. She is specialised in advising Swiss and international clients in all public or private employment law aspects and has an in-depth knowledge in immigration law.

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Emanuelle Brulhart_blog

Emanuelle Brulhart – Senior Manager, Deloitte Legal

Emanuelle is a Swiss qualified attorney-at-law with over 15 years of professional experience, of which more than 13 years within the legal practice at Deloitte in Switzerland. She currently leads the employment law practice within Deloitte Legal in Western Switzerland. She advises and supports both international groups and Swiss based companies on employment related topics; as well as social security, national and international, and immigration law matters. She provides legal advice on complex restructuring projects, secondments, hiring of services, transfers and mass dismissal.

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