Dismissed after ten years: what is the notice period?
Dismissed after ten years: what is the notice period?
"I had been working for a company for ten years. I was made redundant for just cause. How many more months must my employer pay me?
Muriel, Lausanne
Article 335c of the Swiss Code of Obligations (CO) usually states that an employment contract may be terminated at the end of a month, subject to a notice period of one month during the first year of service, two months from the second to the ninth year of service, and three months thereafter. So, as you have worked for this company for ten years, your employer should normally still pay you three months' salary, unless this period has been modified by a written agreement, a standard contract or a collective agreement.
However, you state that you were dismissed for "just cause", which normally means immediately within the meaning of art. 337 of the Swiss Code of Obligations. This legal provision allows an employment contract to be terminated immediately when the relationship of trust that must necessarily exist between employer and employee has been irretrievably destroyed. If this is the case and the company employing you can accuse you of having committed a particularly serious breach of your duties, so that the continuation of the employment relationship can no longer be demanded, you will not be granted any notice period and your salary will only be paid up to the day of your dismissal.
As immediate dismissal is an extremely severe measure, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court requires that it be preceded by a warning that has no effect if the employee's alleged misconduct is only minor. If it turns out that the immediate dismissal was unjustified, the employer must, under art. 337c of the Swiss Code of Obligations, pay the employee what he would have earned if the employment relationship had ended on expiry of the notice period, i.e. three months in your case. In addition, the employer may be ordered by the industrial tribunal to pay the employee compensation of up to six months' salary.
