During the pandemic, business has so far been completely out of business in numerous industries or operations had to be shut down sharply. As a result, many employees only worked on short-time work, which could often even miss entire working days.
According to a ruling by the Federal Labour Court (BAG) in November, a daily absence due to zero short-time work may be taken into account when calculating vacation. More specifically, this means that vacation may be reduced proportionally depending on lost working hours.
The BAG came to this decision after a saleswoman, who was on zero short-time work in the months of April, May and October in 2020, wanted to assert an unabridged vacation claim. The employer had previously reduced her vacation entitlement for this period proportionally. The employee, on the other hand, argued that there had been neither a relevant collective agreement nor a works agreement and that there was therefore no legal basis for this.
Yet the court did not agree with her. The reason: If employees are employed under zero short-time work, both employers and employees agree on a temporary suspension of their work obligation. Because no work has to be done during this time. Although vacation entitlement generally exists because this results from an existing employment relationship, the amount of this vacation entitlement is determined by the number of working days with a work obligation. If the number of working days with a duty to work is reduced, the number of vacation days also decreases.
As a result of the FOPH ruling, vacation cuts due to zero short-time work are now officially legal.
Extension of easier access to short-time work allowance
In addition, in December 2021, the Federal Council decided to extend reductions for receiving short-time work allowance until 31 March 2022. The simplifications also include:
- Lowering the number of employees who must be affected by loss of work in order to introduce short-time work from a third of employees to 10 percent.
- Partial or complete abstinence from building up negative working time balances.
- Short-time work is now also possible for temporary workers.
- Reimbursement of social security contributions by the Federal Employment Agency, either in full or in half.
However, the reimbursement of social security contributions for employers is generally only possible in the amount of 50 percent, unless employees take part in continuing vocational training supported under certain conditions during short-time work. In this case, both the remaining 50 percent and the costs of continuing education can be covered proportionally or even in full.
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