Cleaning lady and holidays
Cleaning lady and holidays
All employees, whether part-time or full-time, are entitled to paid holidays. This principle is laid down in Articles 329a et seq. of the Swiss Code of Obligations, under which the employer must grant the employee at least 4 weeks' holiday per year, during which he or she will receive his or her usual salary. In principle, holidays must be taken in kind and may not be replaced by monetary compensation, although the Federal Court has accepted that in special situations, the salary may include an allowance allowing the employer not to pay the employee during his holidays. However, this possibility only exists if the following cumulative conditions are met: the employment in question must be irregular, the part of the total salary intended for holiday pay must be expressly mentioned in the employment contract when it is concluded in writing and, finally, the periodic salary statements must also clearly indicate this allowance.The statutory minimum holiday entitlement is 4 weeks for employees aged 20 or over, or 5 weeks for employees aged under 20. For a 4-week holiday, 8.33% of the employee's gross salary should be added as holiday pay, and for a 5-week holiday, 10.64%. Please note, however, that collective bargaining agreements may lay down special rules depending on the type of job. You therefore have the choice of not providing holiday pay in addition to the agreed hourly rate and paying your household help when he or she does not come in, as if it were a normal week, but the simplest solution when the employee is paid by the hour is to include the above-mentioned allowance in the hourly wage and not pay him or her when he or she is on holiday.
