Caution: SECO checks the legality of short-time work compensation

Caution: SECO checks the legality of short-time work compensation

Has your company received short-time work compensation for employees in connection with Covid-19?
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) is now reviewing the legality of short-time working compensation for individual companies and will revise if working time controls are inadequate.

1. Correct working time control documents required.
2. A precondition for short-time working compensation is that it is possible to submit working time checks to SECO. On the occasion of the audit for employees affected by economically induced absences from work, the company must be able to submit working time controls to SECO, which provide information on a daily basis about the hours worked and any extrahours, the economically induced hours lost as well as absences due to vacations, public holidays, illness, accidents and other absences.
3. If these are missing, there is a risk that the short-time work compensation will be reclaimed.
4. Merely a combination of the working reports is not sufficient. On the occasion of the audit, effective time records of the employees, which serveas a basis for the compilation of the work reports, are required or at least the claimed work losses must be plausibilised on the basis of other company documents.
5. Under the following link you can download the sample Excel table: https://muster-vorlage.ch/sdm_downloads/zeiterfassung-excel-vorlage-2020-download.
   
6. Law.
7. Employees are not entitled to compensation for short-time work if their loss of working hours cannot be determined or their working hours cannot be sufficiently controlled (article 31 para. 3 lit. a AVIG). This is because the sufficient controllability of the loss of working hours presupposes an operational time control. According to article 46b AVIV, the employer is obliged to keep these documents for five years.
8. If the employees' normal working hours are reduced or completely suspended, they are entitled to short-time work compensation if the employment relationship is not terminated (article 31, paragraph 1, lit. c AVIG).
9. Legal consequences against recovery decisions by SECO.
10. If the work absences of employees affected by short-time work cannot be verified due to the lack of suitable operational time control and plausibilitychecks are not possible, the work absences claimed will be completely revoked.
11. Appeals against SECO recovery decisions.
12. After receipt of the order, one can lodge an objection in writing with SECO within 30days. The objection must contain a request and a justification and any evidence must be enclosed.

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