Understanding Swiss Employment Law: what happens if you get sick during your first days at work

You have been hired under Swiss labor law with an open-ended employment contract.

You happily start your new job and unfortunately, get sick in the first few days.

Your employer decides to terminate your contract while you are sick.

So, you wonder if they have the right to do so.

Read this article to know your rights in case of dismissal during sick leave, especially when you have just started your new job.

The applicable law to Swiss employment contracts

In Switzerland, labor law is governed by the Code des Obligations (CO), articles 319ss.

What else do you need to know?

The Swiss labor law provides some flexibility for employers and employees to agree on their working conditions.

Therefore, it is essential to review your employment contract to know how your rights are protected, rather than relying solely on the law.

Knowing that your contracts may have some specific terms, in this article, I will provide a general overview of what the law entails.

The importance of the concept of the “probation period”

The first question to ask is what type of contract you signed. Is it a fixed-term contract or an indefinite contract?

a. Fixed-term contract

If you have agreed to a fixed-term contract, there is no probation period unless you have made a different agreement with your employer.

In such cases, the protections against dismissals that I will discuss below do not apply.

Just know that with a fixed-term contract, the employer cannot terminate the contract before the specified end date.

b. Indefinite contract

If you have signed an employment contract without a predetermined end, also known as an indefinite contract, then the law prescribes a probation period.

The purpose of this probation period is to allow you and your employer to assess whether you can work together successfully. If not, so the contract can be terminated within a relatively short period.

According to the law, the probation period corresponds to your first month of work.

During this month, either you or your employer can decide to terminate the contract with a 7-day notice.

You can decide otherwise, but it must be done in writing to be valid and the probation period cannot be longer than 3 months.

Why it is important to know when your probation period ends

It is important to know when your probation period ends because it has consequences on any potential protection against dismissal by your employer.

Indeed, the law states in article 336c lit. b CO that “after the probation period has expired, the employer may not terminate the employment relationship while the employee through no fault of his own is partially or entirely prevented from working by illness or accident”.

Therefore, it is only once the probation period is over that a worker is protected for a certain time against dismissal.

I further specify that if the employer terminates the contract after the trial period but before the employee falls ill, the dismissal remains valid. Its effects are only suspended for a while.

Conclusion

If you have signed an open-ended employment contract, unless you have agreed to any other terms in writing, your contract will have a probation period of one month, during which either party can terminate the contract with a notice period of 7 calendar days.

As the protections against dismissal do not apply during the probation period, if you fall ill during this period, your employer has the right to terminate your contract by giving you a 7-day notice.

Feel free to contact me by clicking the button if you have any questions in a specific situation.