switzerland
When can employer on hourly basis cancel work at the latest?
<p>I'm trying to find out if a new policy implemented by my employer is legal. I'm employed on an hourly basis, no minimum amount of work, with shift plans made yearly. Now they started cancelling some work less than 3 hours in advance depending on business needs (which make sense, but aren't my problem).</p>
<p>I can't track down any specific legislation, I found SR 220 Art. 324 and SR 822.111 Art. 69 (official <a href="https://www.seco.admin.ch/seco/de/home/Arbeit/Arbeitsbedingungen/Arbeitsgesetz-und-Verordnungen/Wegleitungen/Wegleitung-zur-ArGV-1.html#-305982440" rel="nofollow noreferrer">commentary/explanations</a> by SECO) which both seem to support me, but aren't specific enough to be of any use to me.</p>
<p>Switzerland, Canton of Zurich.</p>

<p><strong>First Part</strong></p>
<p>OR 324 is quite the right article for this. If the employer doesn't want that you work (because he has nothing to do for you) it's his problem, not yours. He still has to pay if you are there and ready to do work. This is for instance also mentioned in <a href="https://www.20min.ch/story/unverschuldete-minusstunden-was-tun-560345018339" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this article</a>.</p>
<p>The meaning of this is obvious if having a contract with a fixed number of work hours per day/month/year.</p>
<p><strong>Second part</strong></p>
<p>Prove that you have a fixed work contract.</p>
<p>If the shift plans are made in advance you have a proof that you have a certain number of hours to work (and thus an expected income). If I interpret <a href="https://www.slp.ch/lohnfortzahlungspflicht-bei-gelegenheitsarbeit/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this here</a> correctly, this is &quot;echte Arbeit auf Abruf&quot; (true work on request), because if your employer wants your work, you <em>have to</em> be there according to the shift plan, as opposed to your employer asking &quot;who is ready to work tonight?&quot;.</p>
<p>So your employer must pay you the hours agreed on in the shift plan, regardless of whether he has work for you or not (but you must explicitly tell him that you are willing to take work).</p>
<p><strong>Third part</strong></p>
<p>Can the employer change the shift plan, and to what extent?</p>
<p>The employer must announce changes to work hours as soon as possible, and changes on short notice are only acceptable in <a href="https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wirtschaft/sozial-und-sicher/die-festlegung-der-arbeitszeit-ist-chefsache/story/13793839" rel="nofollow noreferrer">emergency cases</a>. A reduction in work hours due to not enough work shall not reduce the employee's salary. The business risk is entirely with the employer and he must not shift that responsibility to his employees. (That was common in the late 19th and early 20th century, with all the officially self-employed home workers in the textile industry). <a href="https://www.bger.ch/ext/eurospider/live/de/php/clir/http/index.php?lang=de&amp;type=highlight_simple_query&amp;page=1&amp;from_date=&amp;to_date=&amp;from_year=1954&amp;to_year=2021&amp;sort=relevance&amp;insertion_date=&amp;from_date_push=&amp;top_subcollection_clir=bge&amp;query_words=OR%20324&amp;part=all&amp;de_fr=&amp;de_it=&amp;fr_de=&amp;fr_it=&amp;it_de=&amp;it_fr=&amp;orig=&amp;translation=&amp;rank=6&amp;highlight_docid=atf%3A%2F%2F125-III-65%3Ade&amp;number_of_ranks=630&amp;azaclir=clir" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Here</a> is a federal court decision that affirms this (BGE 125 III 65 S. 66).</p>
