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Global Mobility Insights - Winter 2022 / 2023 Traveller in Switzerland Business Author: Friederike V. Ruch, CONVINUS (Switzerland) The issue of compliance is becoming increasingly important in every company. In the context of business travel, however, this is very complex for various reasons. For a business trip, several aspects must be looked at or checked in order to take the right steps from a legal point of view. In most companies, the first hurdle already consists of informing all involved departments in the company about the business trips at an early stage in order to make the necessary clarifications or possibly also to obtain work permits. In the following, we will discuss the legal aspects of business trips to Switzerland. Labour law Regardless of the duration of the business trip, it is mandatory to comply with the relevant provisions of labour law. These include, among others, compliance with: Maximum working hours: usually 45 hours, with exceptions. Minimum days off: 20 working days. Public holidays: please note that there are cantonal differences. Swiss equivalent salary: cantonal differences. In practice, the issue of complying with the relevant Swiss salary is a cost-intensive measure. Depending on the place of employment (canton) in Switzerland, there are two different tools for calculating the relevant salary in Switzerland. Both tools are based on the same principles. The calculation is based on the company sector, position in the company, function, working hours, level of education and age. The outcome from the tool represents the relevant base salary. The final result shows several salary figures, whereby only two salary figures are decisive: the salary figure from the lower quartile for Swiss men for a period of up to a maximum of 90 days per year and the median for Swiss men for longer periods. If the business traveller from abroad is paid a lower basic salary, the difference to the calculated decisive salary in Switzerland must be paid pro rata to the business traveller. To calculate the difference for one day, divide the monthly difference by 21.66 days. This calculation is based on the gross base salary. This means that the corresponding taxes and social security contributions must be deducted from the possible differential payment. 26 convinus.com
Global Mobility Insights - Winter 2022 / 2023 Furthermore, the provisions of the Posted Workers Act must be complied with. These stipulate that the costs for meals, accommodation and travel expenses must be borne by the employer. These costs can be covered either effectively or as a lump sum. Often the actual accommodation costs (e.g. hotel) and the actual travel costs (e.g. airfare) are covered. However, the costs of meals and travel within Switzerland (costs of travel between accommodation and place of work) are covered by a lump sum. In most cantons, a lump sum of CHF 70 per day is accepted for usually and a lump sum of CHF 15 per day for travel expenses. In principle, the above-mentioned labour law provisions must be complied with, regardless of whether a work permit is required for the business trip. Work permit or visa In the event that the business traveller carries out gainful employment in Switzerland, a work permit is required. As a rule, this means that either the days of employment in Switzerland must be reported as part of the registration procedure or a 120-day permit must be obtained. Regardless of the type of permit, it is only valid for the indicated place of work. In principle, the reporting procedure is a straightforward online procedure for notification the working days of an employee/business traveller. However, it has some aspects that make the procedure somewhat administratively burdensome in practice. Under the notification procedure, the individual effective working days must be notified 8 days in advance. This means, for example, that if the employee states that he or she will work in Switzerland on 25 March, 25 March must also be notified as such. However, if the employee decides in the end that it would be better to work in Switzerland on 24 March, the notified 25 March must be deleted and the 24 March needs to be reported. However, if the employee does not notify these 8 days in advance, this change cannot be made at all. In addition, the notification procedure can in principle, with some exceptions, only be used for employees of an employer in an EU/EFTA member state (incl. the UK). A final restriction is that each employer only has 90 days per calendar year on which they can notify their employees under the notification procedure. It therefore makes sense to plan accordingly or to use the notification procedure for short-term assignments. For most employees / business travellers who travel to Switzerland several times 27 convinus.com
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