Working Time Models: Overtime, Flexitime, Annual Working Hours, Job Sharing

The Labour Act (ArG) sets the guard rails – the rest is in the contract.

• Maximum working hours: 45 hours per week for industrial work, office staff and technical employees, 50 hours for other employees.
• Breaks: from six hours of work half an hour, from nine hours one hour.
• Rest period: eleven hours between two working days.
• Night and Sunday work: subject to authorisation, with supplements or compensation.

These figures are minimum standards. A contract that falls below them is void to that extent.

The distinction matters because the consequences differ.

• Overtime: work beyond the contractual weekly hours but within the statutory maximum working hours. Compensated by time off of the same duration or paid out with a 25 percent supplement, unless otherwise agreed.
• Excess hours: work beyond the statutory maximum working hours. A supplement of 25 percent, or 50 percent if not compensated in time.
• All-in salary: a lump-sum settlement is permissible only if the scope is limited and the arrangement is transparent.
• Management: extended working time rules often apply to senior staff – check what the contract says.

Both models give room for manoeuvre – with different risks.

• Flexitime: core hours, a flexi-band and a time account. Plus and minus hours are limited; the balance usually does not expire.
• Trust-based working time: no time recording, only target agreements. Advantage: autonomy. Disadvantage: overtime is hard to prove.
• Recording obligation: anyone introducing trust-based working time must still guarantee the statutory maximum working hours and health protection.

In practice: ask in the interview how hours are recorded and what happens to a balance when you leave.

With annual working hours a number of hours is agreed for the whole year – the distribution over the year varies.

• Advantage for employers: seasonal fluctuations can be absorbed without overtime supplements.
• Advantage for employees: plannability over the year and more free time in quiet phases.
• To check: how is the balance regulated at the end of the year? Does it expire, is it paid out or carried over?
• Limits: the maximum weekly working hours still apply – annual working hours do not suspend them.

Job sharing means that two or more people share a position – with joint responsibility.

• Contract: each person has their own employment contract; workload percentages and cover must be regulated.
• Handover: time for handovers must be included in the workload, otherwise the model works against itself.
• Career: job sharing is not a career obstacle where responsibility is clearly assigned – many management positions are shared today.
• Part-time: there is no entitlement to a reduction, but part-time work is widespread in Switzerland and negotiable in the interview.

Six points you should clarify before signing:

1. Weekly working hours and whether overtime is compensated with time off or money.
2. Time recording – system, responsibility, access to your own data.
3. Supplements for night, Sunday and public holiday work, with percentages.
4. On-call and standby duty – compensation and whether it counts as working time.
5. Balance rules on leaving: payout or expiry.
6. Home office – scope, equipment, expenses and availability.

If one of these details is missing, that is not a reason to rule out the job – but a good reason to ask in writing before signing.

Annual working hours sound like freedom but are an arithmetic exercise. Whoever does not recalculate the agreed annual volume regularly works more than contractually owed:

This figure is the benchmark. Anything beyond it is overtime – and must be recorded, compensated or paid. If the contract lacks a clear annual target working time, the model is merely a label on a normal employment relationship.

Also watch how public holidays are treated: if a public holiday falls on a day on which you would not have worked anyway, it may not be booked as a minus.