A distinction must be made between different ways of specifically setting working time:

• Part-time work: commitment for a fixed or indefinite period to work regularly for an employer, by hours, half-days or days; this for a shorter period than that usually carried out within the company.
• Occasional work: occasional work for a fixed period
• On-call work: the employee undertakes to come to work whenever the employer calls upon him/her

1. Formalism of the working time in the employment contract

In order to ensure a better protection of the employer and the employee, it is recommended to always mention the working time in the contract.

2. Payment of salary, 13th salary and overtime

Under Swiss law, the amount of the salary as well as the form of remuneration (hourly, weekly or monthly) are freely determined by contractual agreement between the employer and the employee.
The principle is the same for the 13th salary, so it is possible to pay it to full-time employees and not to pay it to part-time employees. However, in order to avoid any discrimination, it is imperative that the differences in treatment are objectively justified.

With regard to overtime, any hour worked beyond the duration set by the employment contract is considered as overtime. Thus, the 26th hour worked will be considered overtime if the employment contract provides for 25 hours of work per week.
In practice, it is quite possible to derogate from this rule either by mentioning it in the employment contract or, and this is very often the case, by means of the company’s collective agreement, which may stipulate that only hours worked beyond the normal working hours in the company (i.e. the number of contractual hours for a 100%) will be taken into account and increased.

Finally, it should be noted that in case of inability to work, the employer’s obligation to pay a salary is the same as for full-time employees.

3. 3. Payment and compensation for public holidays

The question of payment and compensation for public holidays arises regularly
for part-time employees who are paid by the hour or by the day. In Switzerland, only the 1st of August is a public holiday that must be paid if it coincides with a day that is normally worked. For other public holidays, payment of wages is not provided for by law. Wages should therefore only be paid if an agreement so provides. However, it is customary to pay public holidays to regular workers.

In the case of irregular working hours, some employers provide for a specific holiday allowance in the form of a supplement to the hourly wage.

As regards compensation for public holidays, the employer cannot require a part-time worker to replace the working hours of a public holiday with another working day during the week. Conversely, when a public holiday falls on a day on which the part-time worker does not work, this public holiday does not have to be compensated by another day off.

4. Holiday entitlement

A part-time employee has the same holiday entitlement as a full-time employee, regardless of the length of the working week. A part-time employee is therefore entitled to 4 weeks’ holiday per year if he or she is over 20 years old and 5 weeks if he or she is under 20 years old.

In order to simplify the calculation, which can sometimes be tricky, it is preferable to think in terms of holiday hours rather than weeks. Thus, a worker working 24 hours a week with 4 weeks of holiday will be entitled to 4 x 24 hours, i.e. 96 hours of holiday per year.

Finally, it should be noted that for employees with regular working hours, it is not possible to include the salary due for holidays in the hourly wage, which is possible under certain conditions in the case of irregular working hours.

5. Accident insurance

A distinction must be made between occupational and non-occupational accidents.
– occupational accidents: all workers are compulsorily insured, regardless of the number of hours worked in the week.
– Non-occupational accidents: insurance is not compulsory when workers are employed less than 8 hours per week in the company. The concept of occupational accidents is, however, extended to accidents occurring on the way to and from work.