Compliance guide

Working-time recording in Switzerland: what the law actually requires

In Switzerland, employers must record their staff’s working time and keep that data for five years — a legal obligation based on art. 46 of the Swiss Labour Act (LTr) and detailed in art. 73, 73a and 73b of Ordinance 1 (OLT 1). This guide explains, for free and without jargon, who is concerned, what the register must contain, and what happens during an inspection.

Who is concerned? (Every private company. Yes, yours.)

Every company subject to the Labour Act must record its staff’s working time — which means almost every private company in Switzerland, whatever its size. The obligation applies from the first employee.

There is no size threshold: a childcare centre with six staff or a shop with three people is covered just like a company of two hundred. A few categories of people fall outside the Labour Act — notably those exercising a senior managerial function (art. 3 let. d LTr) — but these exceptions are interpreted narrowly: the job title is not enough, only real decision-making power counts. For everyone else on the team, including apprentices and hourly staff, the register is mandatory.

What must the working-time register contain?

The register must show, for each employee, the daily and weekly hours actually worked — overtime included — together with their time references, that is, when work started and when it ended. A daily total alone is not enough, unless a simplified regime has been validly put in place.

In concrete terms, art. 73 OLT 1 requires among other things:

• the daily and weekly hours actually worked, including compensatory and additional work, with their time references (start and end);
• the timing and duration of breaks of thirty minutes or more;
• the weekly rest or compensatory rest days, when they do not regularly fall on a Sunday;
• night and Sunday work, which must be clearly identifiable from the recorded hours;
• the employee’s identity and the nature of their work, with the start and end dates of the employment relationship.

This is where most home-made systems fail: a weekly total in a spreadsheet contains neither the start and end of each day nor the breaks. In an overtime dispute, it is precisely this level of detail that makes the difference.

How long must this data be kept?

At least five years. Art. 73 para. 2 OLT 1 requires registers and supporting documents to be kept for at least five years from the expiry of their validity.

This means an inspection or a legal claim can concern hours worked several years ago. The question to ask yourself is not “do I write the hours down?” but “could I produce, today, the detailed hours of one employee for a given month three years ago?”. If the file was overwritten, if the binder disappeared in a move, if the computer was replaced — the register no longer exists, and the obligation is not met.

Simplified recording: who qualifies? (art. 73b OLT 1)

Simplified recording allows you to note only the daily duration of work, without start times, end times and breaks. It is reserved for employees who can set a significant share of their own schedule — and it requires a formal agreement, which many companies don’t know.

The regime is in principle based on a collective agreement concluded with the employees’ representatives. In companies with fewer than fifty employees, the law allows an individual written agreement with each employee concerned; the employer must then hold a documented annual review of the workload. Night and Sunday work must still be documented.

This is “the written agreement almost nobody has”: in practice, many small companies record only daily totals believing they are compliant, without ever having formalised the simplified regime. Without a written agreement, it is not simplified recording — it is an incomplete register.

Waiving recording altogether: art. 73a — rare, and often misunderstood

Waiving working-time recording entirely is only possible within a narrow frame: a gross annual income above CHF 120,000.– (bonuses included), genuine autonomy in organising one’s work, a collective employment agreement that provides for it, and an individual written waiver, renewable each year.

In other words: this regime practically never applies to a small company without a collective agreement. A well-paid manager without an applicable collective agreement cannot validly “waive” recording — and the employer remains obliged to keep the register.

Is Excel legal? (Short answer: it isn’t prohibited. But…)

The law imposes no tool: a spreadsheet, a notebook or software are all admissible in principle. What matters is that the register is complete, accurate, and available for five years.

The problem with a spreadsheet is therefore not its legality but its evidential value. An Excel file can be modified without leaving a trace: nothing shows that the hours displayed today are the ones entered at the time, or who entered them, or whether the employee ever saw them. The day an employee disputes their hours in court — or an inspector asks for the detail of a specific month — a register that can be edited at will, kept unilaterally by the employer, carries little weight. What carries weight: contemporaneous records, a history of corrections, and regular confirmation by the employee themselves.

What does the cantonal labour inspectorate ask for during an inspection?

The inspectorate can require production of the working-time register and all documents needed to enforce the law: contracts, schedules, hour statements, per employee. Art. 46 LTr obliges the employer to keep these records at the disposal of the authorities — meaning able to present them, not promising to reconstruct them.

An inspection can happen unannounced, following an employee complaint, or as part of a sector campaign. If the register is missing or incomplete, the authority generally sets a deadline for compliance, then can issue an administrative decision; in serious cases the Labour Act provides for criminal sanctions (art. 59 ff LTr). Beyond the sanction, a deficient register weakens the employer’s position in any subsequent employment dispute.

And data protection?

An employee’s hours are personal data under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nLPD/FADP). The employer must therefore process them according to the principles of purpose limitation, proportionality and security — and the employee can request a copy (right of access, art. 25 nLPD).

In practice: record only what the law requires (no geolocation, no surveillance), limit access to those who need it, protect the data against loss and modification, and know where it is stored and who processes it. Transparency on these points is not a luxury: it is an obligation.