Maternity and paternity leave in Switzerland

The birth of a child and work meet on ground precisely regulated by Swiss law. Maternity and paternity leave have their own durations, allowances and protections. For the employer they are also a payroll matter: who advances the payment, who reimburses, how it is calculated. Here is the essential picture.

Maternity leave

After childbirth, the employee is entitled to maternity leave of 14 weeks (98 days). During this period she receives a maternity allowance through the loss-of-earnings compensation (EO).

The main features:

• the allowance amounts to 80% of the average income earned before childbirth;
• it is subject to a maximum daily cap set by law (currently CHF 220 per day);
• it is paid in the form of daily allowances for the entire duration of the leave.

The entitlement presupposes that the mother was insured under the AHV (state old-age insurance) and had carried out gainful activity in the months before childbirth, according to the legal requirements.

The ban on work after childbirth

Regardless of the leave, the Labour Act prohibits employing the new mother during the first eight weeks after childbirth. Between the ninth and the sixteenth week, resumption is possible only with the employee’s consent. It is a health protection that the employer cannot circumvent, not even at the employee’s request.

Paternity leave

The father is entitled to leave of two weeks (14 daily allowances), to be taken within six months of the child’s birth. He can take it in a block or in single days.

In this case too:

• the allowance amounts to 80% of income, through the EO;
• the same maximum daily cap provided for maternity applies;
• the same requirement of AHV insurance and gainful activity is required.

Paternity leave does not reduce holidays and cannot be compensated in money if not taken within the deadline.

Other related leave

Alongside the two main ones, other cases exist:

• Adoption leave: two weeks compensated by the EO, under certain conditions.
• Care leave for looking after a child with serious health problems: up to an extended maximum, again through the EO.
• Short absences to assist a sick family member, at the employer’s expense within defined limits.

Protection from dismissal

During pregnancy and in the sixteen weeks following childbirth, the employee enjoys reinforced protection: notice given by the employer in this period is void. If the notice period was already running when the pregnancy began, it resumes only after the end of the protected period.

This protection does not apply during the probationary period, but becomes full once the employment relationship is consolidated.

Payroll duties

On the operational side, the employer must correctly manage:

• the notification to the AHV compensation fund to obtain the allowance;
• the choice of whether to advance the salary and get the allowance reimbursed, or pass it directly to the person;
• the treatment of social contributions on the allowance (the EO allowance is subject to AHV/IV/EO and ALV contributions);
• coordination with the thirteenth month salary and other salary elements, according to the contract.

A frequent mistake is to calculate the allowance on the last salary instead of on the relevant average income, or to forget the daily cap: both generate annoying adjustments.

How we help you

The Payroll division of SIH ONE manages notifications, allowances and calculations for maternity, paternity and related leave, coordinating EO, social contributions and payslips. Entrust the payroll of leave to us.