Does moving house entitle you to a day off?
Does moving house entitle you to a day off?
"I employ around ten people in my company. Four months ago, one of my employees took a day off work to move house. Is there a general obligation on employers to give employees days off for moving house during the course of their employment? Do I have to pay my employee for this day off?"
Robert, Vaud
The Code of Obligations sets out various situations in which employers are legally obliged to grant one or more days of leave to their employees: weekly leave (often at weekends), holidays, maternity leave and leave for extra-curricular activities for employees under the age of 30.
In addition, the employer must grant the employee the so-called "usual" hours and days of leave, by which is meant those which custom requires to be granted even though the employee is not prevented from working for a reason not at fault inherent in his person. Varying from one to several days, this usual leave mainly concerns leave granted for social events that are customary (e.g. marriage or birth), as well as certain de facto obligations such as finding accommodation, moving house or visiting public services.
Most of the time, such leave is governed by collective labour agreements or individual employment contracts. In fact, it is important to remember that there are several collective labour agreements in different sectors of the economy, including the hotel and catering industry, which stipulate that taking a day's leave (or even more, depending on the case) to move house is considered to be an absence through no fault of the employee and therefore has no influence on the employee's salary.
It is therefore important to consider the sector of activity in which you operate and to check whether the individual employment contract concluded with your employee provides for remuneration in the event of a day's leave taken because of the move, failing which you will have to give your employee notice without being obliged to pay him his salary for that day.
