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Whether you are reading up on this topic as a business owner, a foreign resident of Switzerland, or simply out of a personal interest, read on to learn the basics of what this initiative is about and what its legal effects would be if passed on 27 September 2020.

Due to the declining number of new infections, the Federal Council has largely relaxed its measures. On 22 June 2020, the Federal Council repealed the COVID-19 Ordinance 2 which contained, among other things, obligations of employers with regards to the coronavirus.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to dominate our everyday lives. The Federal Council is now gradually beginning to ease measures and lift bans. Since 27 April 2020, certain industries are allowed to reopen their businesses. From 11 May 2020, shops, restaurants, markets, museums and libraries may also reopen under strict compliance with distance and hygiene measures. This raises a number of questions for employers. Some of them will be discussed briefly here.

The year 2020 does not only mark the beginning of a new decade but also brings a variety of changes from an employment law perspective which must be observed and implemented during the course of the year. Read here about some of the changes to employment law coming into effect in 2020.

The novel coronavirus, which has been declared a “public health emergency of international concern” by the WHO, continues to spread. Besides China, coronavirus cases have been confirmed in more than 30 countries. The virus has now also arrived in Switzerland and as a result, employers need to be aware of the employment legal issues involved. In particular, employers need to know what to do if employees refuse to attend work through fear of contracting the coronavirus at the workplace or if employees already have the virus. A number of different scenarios are possible, which we will briefly highlight in this blog post.

Flexible forms of work are in vogue, not only for companies, but also for service and labour providers. Independence offers advantages for both sides. But when is a freelancer really a freelancer and not an employee?

Flexible collaboration models are not always easy to qualify legally. From the perspective of civil law, are the "commissioned" persons employees or agents and from the perspective of social security law, are these persons self-employed or employed persons? These questions of delimitation are, as will be shown below, of great importance for the contracting parties involved and also of frequent concern to the courts.

The 2007 Lugano Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters currently forms the basis for the reciprocal enforcement of judgments between the member states of the European Union and three countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) (Switzerland, Norway and Iceland). The Lugano Convention is in essence the equivalent of the Brussels I Regulation of 2001.

The Federal Council has issued new regulations on recording of working time, which entered into force on 1 January 2016. The revised rules in the Regulation No. 1 to the Employment Act (Employment Act Regulation 1) are intended to relax the duties on recording working time for employees that have a large degree of freedom in how they structure their work and can generally determine their working times themselves.