Working hours in the office

Who is this overview for?

Offices, administrations, trustee and consulting firms, agencies and any other business not covered by a collective labour agreement. There, working time is governed by the Labour Act (public law), the OR and the employment contract.

Senior executives with far-reaching decision-making powers are exempt from the Labour Act. Only the OR and their employment contract apply to them.

Maximum hours and breaks

• Office staff, technical employees and sales staff in large retail businesses have a maximum working week of 45 hours (Art. 9 ArG).
• Contractual hours are usually lower, often 40 to 42 hours.
• Breaks: at least 15 minutes for more than 5½ hours, 30 minutes for more than 7 hours and one hour for more than 9 hours of work per day (Art. 15 ArG).
• A rest period of at least 11 hours applies between two working days.

Overtime and excess hours – the difference

Overtime is time worked beyond the contractual hours – up to the legal maximum of 45 hours. It is governed by the OR (Art. 321c):

• With the employee's consent, overtime can be compensated with time off of equal length.
• Otherwise it must be paid at the normal wage plus a bonus of at least 25%.
• The bonus and compensation can be arranged differently in writing, for example in the employment contract. A verbal agreement is not enough.

Excess hours are hours worked beyond the 45-hour maximum. They are limited to 2 hours per day and 170 hours per year. The 25% bonus is mandatory and cannot be waived – for office staff, however, only for excess hours above 60 per calendar year (Art. 12 and 13 ArG).

Mandatory time recording

Full time recording is the rule in offices too (Art. 46 ArG, Art. 73 ArGV 1):

• Daily and weekly working hours including compensatory and excess hours, and when they were worked
• Breaks of 30 minutes or more
• Records kept for at least 5 years

Simplified time recording

Employees who can set a substantial part of their working hours themselves may record their time in a simplified way (Art. 73b ArGV 1). Then the total hours worked per day are enough – breaks and the timing of work need not be recorded.

• As a rule, this requires an agreement with the employee representatives or, where there are none, with the majority of employees.
• In businesses with fewer than 50 employees, simplified recording can also be agreed individually in writing.
• For night and Sunday work, the start and end of each shift must still be recorded.

Waiving time recording entirely (Art. 73a ArGV 1) is only possible under a collective labour agreement – and only for employees with high autonomy and a gross annual salary above CHF 120,000. For most SMEs without a CLA, this is not an option.

Trust-based working time is not an exemption

Trust-based working time means employees organise their own hours. It does not exempt them from the legal duty to record time: anyone covered by the Labour Act must record their hours – at least in simplified form.

Holidays and public holidays

Under the OR, employees are entitled to at least 4 weeks of holidays per year, and 5 weeks up to age 20. 1 August is a paid public holiday throughout Switzerland; other public holidays are set by the cantons.