Night work, working on Sundays and public holidays

Approval from the authorities is required if night work is needed. For temporary night work, a premium of 25% must be paid. For permanent or regularly recurring night work, employees are entitled to paid leave of 10% of the time worked during night hours. This leave must be granted within one year. There is no entitlement for compensation in the form of paid leave if the average shift time, including breaks, does not exceed seven hours, or if the person working at night is employed for only four nights per week.

Sunday is defined as the time between 11 p.m. on Saturday and 11 p.m. on Sunday. Except where special regulations apply to certain sectors, approval from the relevant authority is also needed for work on such days. Only one holiday – 1 August, Swiss National Day – is treated as equivalent to a Sunday throughout the whole country.

The cantons may declare up to eight additional holidays as equivalent to a Sunday. They must be differentiated from the legally recognized public holidays: Although the same rules generally apply to these days as to holidays treated as Sundays, the legal basis for this is defined by the canton or municipality and so may differ in detail from the provisions regarding Sundays.