Reintroduction of the waiting period
As of September 1, the Federal Council is reintroducing a 1-day waiting period payable by the employer. It had been completely abolished at the end of March.
Under the normal RHT scheme, the waiting period is normally 2 days per payroll period (for the first 6 payroll periods), then 3 days from the 7th to the 12th payroll period.
As a reminder, the 10-day notice period was reintroduced on June 1.
Changes in the circle of beneficiaries
| RHT COVID 19 | RHT normal operation | ||
| Employee categories | Until 31.05.2020 | From 01.06.2020 | From 01.09.2020 |
| Salaried managers | yes | no | no |
| Managers’ spouses | yes | no | no |
| Open-ended contracts | yes | yes | yes |
| Fixed-term contract | yes | yes | no |
| Apprentices | yes | no | no |
| Temporary | yes | yes | no |
| On call (variation <20%) | yes | yes | no |
| On call (variation >20%) | yes | yes | no |
| Terminated contract | no | no | no |
| Taking overtime into account | no | no | yes |
Taking overtime into account
Overtime will once again be taken into account in the RHT calculation from September 1.
Uncompensated overtime worked during the last 6 months (or 12 months in the event of a new claim during the current compensation period) is deducted from the loss of work.
The same applies to hours worked under the company’s flexitime system, provided they exceed 20 hours.
How to proceed:
> Complete the standard “Advance notice of reduction in working hours” form (not the special Covid-19 form). Answer questions 9 to 12. The link to this form is available at the end of this article.
> Attach the following documents to the form:
- Organizational chart for the company as a whole, or, in the case of operating sectors, the staffing situation in the organizational units.
- A copy of the current extract from the commercial register.
- Monthly sales figures for the last 24 months.
- The completed “Approval of reduced working hours” form. The link to this form is available at the end of this article.
It is important that your application is complete to avoid delays in processing.
Please submit the notice request directly on travailswiss.ch from August 19, 2020. The creation of this online service, announced by SECO on July 7, will improve the efficiency and quality of the management process.
Please take into account the reintroduction of the 10-day notice period when submitting your extension request.
APG extended to September 16
Despite the lifting of most measures, many companies have not yet been able to resume operations, or can only do so partially.
The Federal Council has therefore decided that self-employed workers directly or indirectly affected by the measures taken to combat the coronavirus will benefit from loss-of-earnings allowances until September 16, whereas the deadline had originally been the end of May.
There is no need to take any particular action. The AVS compensation funds will resume payment of their allowance.
