Employment contract
Most free templates ignore your industry's collective agreement, set an unlawful probation period or copy an unenforceable non-competition clause. The contract stays valid, but its clauses fall away, at the very moment you need them.
Who it is forSMEs hiring without an HR department, trustees preparing contracts for their clients, start-ups making a first hire, employers formalising verbal contracts.
Order
A ten-minute questionnaire, then a contract written for your role, your canton and your industry, with every clause explained and the risk it covers.
Understand
How long may the probation period last?
Three months, not a day more, even by mutual agreement. The first month applies by default if nothing is written. A six-month probation extends nothing: it is cut back to three, and you are left with the ordinary notice period where you expected to terminate within seven days.
Art. 335b CO
Can I set the notice period freely?
It must be the same for both parties. A contract imposing three months on the employee and one on the employer does not shorten your notice: the longer one applies to both. Absent agreement, the law provides one month in the first year, two from the second to the ninth, three thereafter.
Art. 335a and 335c CO
Is overtime included in the salary?
Only if the contract says so in writing, and the Labour Act prevails: excess work beyond the maximum working time is paid with a 25 % supplement, or compensated by time off with the employee's agreement. An all-inclusive clause with no hourly ceiling does not survive an inspection.
Art. 321c CO, art. 12 and 13 LabA
Does a non-competition clause really protect you?
It is valid only in writing, limited in time, place and scope of activity, and only where the employee had access to the client base or to manufacturing secrets whose use could cause you substantial harm. It also lapses if you terminate without good cause. Three years, all of Switzerland, every sector: the court reduces, or annuls.
Art. 340 to 340c CO
Going further
FAQ
No, the individual employment contract is valid without written form, except for apprenticeships, staff leasing and commercial travellers. But some clauses exist only in writing: extended probation, non-competition, compensation of overtime. Without writing you keep the contract and lose those clauses.
We check before drafting. An agreement declared generally binding by the Federal Council applies to every employer in the industry, even unaffiliated ones, and often sets minimum wages, holidays and notice periods more favourable than the CO. That is the first thing a generic template ignores.
Yes for equivalent roles: you receive the Word file and change the name, the workload and the salary. For a role of a different nature, salaried executive, on-call work, apprenticeship, the clauses change and a fresh drafting is wiser.
Every clause delivered is explained, with the risk it covers and its legal basis. For twelve months, any question about the contract delivered is answered in writing at no charge. If a law or a ruling changes what we wrote, we update the document free of charge.
Yes, as a separate service: the dismissal file calculates the notice period and the effective date, drafts the letter and lists what must be handed over. A wrongly dated dismissal is void, and it is the most frequent mistake.
A question before ordering?
You are unsure whether your industry has a collective agreement, or whether your particular case fits a standard contract: say so here. Personal reply within two business days.
