School closing and employment: Vischer’s suggestions to clients
The Swiss Federal Council has issued additional measures in relation to the new Coronavirus in order to protect the public health. As for school closing, employees and employers with children will have to find arrangements to deal with this emergency situation. Vischer writes a blog “We’ll summarize the main points below.
- Employees with children are entitled to stay home to arrange for care of their children at least for three days.
- These paid absences is a highly controversial topic to which there is very little relevant case law (for the three-days period absences should be paid).
- Employers cannot ask employees to take vacation for their absences as vacation’s purpose is recreation.
- Employers don’t have to cover extra costs such as external childcare (e.g. babysitter)
- Employers cannot impose home office for employees with children as well as employees don’t have the right to access remote work unless there is a corresponding contractual provision.
