Staff regulations: what they are for

As a company grows, handling every rule inside each individual employment contract becomes awkward. Staff regulations gather in a single document the rules common to all employees. They are not generally mandatory, but for organisations with several staff members they are a tool of order and fairness. Let us look at what they are really for.

What they are

Staff regulations are an internal company document that supplements the individual employment contracts. While the contract governs the single relationship (role, salary, working hours), the regulations set out the rules valid for everyone: procedures, conduct, organisational practices.

The advantage is practical: instead of repeating dozens of clauses in every contract, you refer to the regulations. Updating a rule means changing a single text, not all the contracts.

What they usually contain

Well-drafted regulations generally cover:

• working hours, flexibility, time recording and overtime;
• holidays and other leave, how to request and approve them;
• absences and illness: duty to report, medical certificate, procedures;
• home office and remote work: organisational rules and reimbursements;
• use of IT tools, internet and company email;
• data protection and confidentiality;
• expense reimbursement and business travel;
• code of conduct, occupational safety, harassment prevention;
• disciplinary procedures and conflict management.

Not everything belongs in the regulations: the essential and individual elements (salary, role) stay in the contract.

Legal force

For the regulations to be binding on the employee, the employee must have knowledge of them and accept them, as a rule through an express reference in the employment contract (“the employee declares that they have received and accepted the staff regulations”). Handing them over and having receipt signed is the safest practice.

Once integrated into the relationship, the regulations have contractual force: their rules apply as clauses of the contract.

The limits to respect

The regulations cannot derogate, to the employee’s detriment, from the mandatory provisions of the Code of Obligations and the Employment Act. Some examples of boundaries that cannot be crossed:

• holidays cannot fall below the statutory minimum (four weeks, five up to the age of 20);
• the minimum notice periods and the protection during blocking periods cannot be reduced;
• the duty of continued payment of salary in the event of no-fault incapacity cannot be waived;
• the rules on maximum working hours and rest set out in the Employment Act must be respected.

A clause that breaches a mandatory provision is simply ineffective: the law applies, not the regulations.

Staff regulations and works regulations

Be careful not to confuse two notions. The staff regulations are the contractual tool discussed here. There are then works regulations (Betriebsordnung) in the technical sense, which the Employment Act requires of industrial businesses and which may be adopted voluntarily by others: the latter follow a formal procedure (consultation of staff, notification to the authority) and concern mainly safety and internal order. Many service SMEs use only the staff regulations.

When it pays to adopt them

Regulations become useful already with a handful of employees, and almost indispensable when:

• the workforce grows and uniform treatment is needed;
• home office or flexible hours are introduced and need to be governed;
• exposure to data protection and IT-tool use increases;
• you want to reduce disputes by having clear and provable rules.

Up-to-date regulations are also a sign of organisational seriousness towards staff and candidates.

How we help

The People division of SIH ONE drafts tailored staff regulations, compliant with the CO and the Employment Act, and coordinates them with individual contracts and payroll procedures. We write your staff regulations.